Option X will be available in the future, however, another change allows applicants to “automatically select” their binary genre.
The U.S. State Department is in the process of offering a third gender marker – “X” to U.S. passports for Americans who do not identify as men or women, the secretary of office announced Wednesday. State, Antony Blinken.
In a statement, Blinken said that under the new rules in effect immediately, passport applicants will be allowed to “automatically select” their gender, “M” or “F,” without the need for medical certification if their selection does not matches other issued documents.
This is the first step in allowing a third gender marker option – “X” – other than “M” or “F,” Blinken said, in an effort to promote “freedom, dignity and equality for all.” people “, including LGBTQ + people.
“The Department has begun to move toward the addition of a gender marker for non-binary, intersex, and nonconforming people applying for a passport or CRBA (Consular Reports of Birth Abroad),” Blinken continued. , explaining that the process for adding gender markers is “technologically complex” and said his department “is evaluating the best approach to achieving that goal.”
Today we are taking important steps to ensure the fair treatment of LGBTQI + Americans. https://t.co/tfNnTUQmsp
– Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) June 30, 2021
Blinken did not indicate when the new gender marker would be available.
The State Department website states, “We can’t provide an exact timeline for when we’ll start offering a gender marker for non-binary, intersex, and non-gender-compliant people.”
Blinken’s announcement comes on the last day of Pride Month and is being celebrated by the LGBTQ + community, which has argued that traditional male and female options discriminate against non-binary and intersex people.
Lambda legal counsel Paul Castillo tweeted about spreading the news “it’s coming a long time” for his group’s client “Dana Zzyym, a veteran of the U.S. Navy intersex and not binary “which presented a plet six years ago “to obtain an accurate passport.”
Today’s State Department news is long overdue for countless LGBTQI + Americans, including @LambdaLegal client Dana Zzyym, a U.S. Navy veteran of intersex and non-binary, who filed her case in 2015 for an accurate passport. https://t.co/EWMSOzzR0j
– Paul D. Castillo (@PaulCastilloJD) June 30, 2021
The US will join several other countries, including Canada, Australia, Germany and India offering an “X” option to passports. The move comes after New York State announced last week that a gender marker will be available on its driver’s licenses and ID cards, joining several other states and locations that allow the ” X “in official documentation.
The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has deviated from its predecessor Donald Trump’s approach to LGBTQ + rights, and began its presidency in January by investing Trump’s transgender military ban and restarting the tradition of officially recognizing the month of June as a month of pride. Trump only acknowledged this once during his four-year term, in 2019.
Last week, Biden marked The month of pride at the White House and designated the Pulse nightclub as a national memorial. Forty-nine died in a 2016 mass shooting at the gay nightclub.
The Biden administration also has the first LGBTQ + Cabinet Secretary openly confirmed by the Senate: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.