X Gender Marker Available On U.S. Passports Starting April 11 

U.S. passports will include option for “X” gender marker starting April 11, 2022, State Department says

Americans applying for a U.S. passport will be able to identify with the gender designation “X” beginning on April 11, the State Department announced Thursday, in recognition of Trans Visibility Day. The move intends to make federal documents more inclusive for transgender, intersex, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people.

“We’re setting a precedent as the first US federal government agency to offer the ‘X’ gender marker on an identity document,” Douglass Benning, principal deputy assistant secretary for consular affairs at the State Department, told reporters.

Applicants will be permitted to select gender “X” on their passport application form, even if it doesn’t match the gender on their birth certificate or other documents.

While the gender “X” marker will be available for routine services next month, the State Department plans to roll out the option for other documents — including passport cards, expedited and consular reports of birth abroad — beginning in late 2023.

“The X means unspecified or another gender identity,” said Jessica Stern, U.S. Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI+) Persons.

Stern said that while the policy change recognizes the “true identity” of the passport holder, it will not create new definitions nor rights.

“The provision of an ‘X’ gender marker option is important because human beings do not always fit within a male or female category around the world, the lived realities of transgender intersex, non-binary and gender-nonconforming persons reflects that there is a wider spectrum of humanity than is represented by a binary sex designation on passports,” Stern said.

Source:- CBSnews

Share on:  Whatsapp  Twitter  Facebook