For the first time in the United States, passports marked with ‘Gender X’ without male or female gender were issued.
The U.S. Department of State issued a statement on the 27th (local time) that it had issued the first passports with an ‘X’ indicating gender rather than female or male. It recognizes the rights of LGBT people who do not define their gender and allows them to issue official IDs. However, the identity of the LGBT person who was first issued this passport was not disclosed for privacy reasons.
Previously, if you wanted to change the gender displayed on your ID, you had to get a ‘conversion certificate’ from your doctor. However, from now on, individuals can choose to indicate their gender without a doctor’s opinion.
Jessica Stern, U.S. special envoy for LGBT human rights diplomacy, said, “This measure is historically worthy of celebration, as it puts in a government document the reality that there are more human sexual characteristics than before ‘male’ and ‘female’.” Previously, in the United States, there have been constant requests from LGBT people to the government to issue passports and ID cards with ‘Gender X’ on them. According to an activist at the LGBTQ rights group GLAAD, intersex, non-binary (those who do not fall under the gender dichotomy of male and female) and transgender people may pose safety concerns because they do not have identification cards that accurately identify themselves. Accordingly, on June 30, Secretary of State Tony Blincoln announced revisions to the passport issuance procedure for LGBT people. However, it was said that it would be applied by the end of this year, saying that extensive system updates were needed, but the first issuance started this month.
As for passports marked with ‘Gender X’ in this way, in addition to the United States, about 10 countries have already started issuing passports by adding a third option to the gender notation of passports. “Gender X” passports have been issued in at least 11 countries, including Canada, Germany, Argentina, India, Nepal and Pakistan, the Associated Press reported.
Han Ji-hye, reporter for Donga.com onewisdom@donga.com
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