Explained: What Is The New US Passport With 'X' Gender Designation

The United States announced its first passport with an "X" gender designation, marking a milestone in the recognition of the rights of people who do not identify as male or female.

The State Department said it had issued a first passport with X for gender and would make the option routinely available by early 2022 both for passports and birth certificates of US citizens born abroad. The document has an X in the gender box, signalling that the holder does not conform to any binary.

In June, Secretary of State Antony Blinken had promised that the X marker would be offered as an option on passports but later noted that there were technological hurdles that needed to be addressed.

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Earlier, Americans required medical certification if they wanted to mark a gender on their passports differently than on their birth certificates or other documents.

Who received the passport?

Although the department did not inform who the passport recipient was, a civil rights organization Lambda Legal confirmed its client Dana Zzyym had received the first gender-neutral X passport.

Dana Zzyym (pronounced Zimm) is a 66-year-old intersex activist from Fort Collins in Colorado. Zzyym, who prefers a gender-neutral pronoun, told the Associated Press in a telephone interview that they received it.

In 2015 they had sued the State Department over issuance of gender neutral passports that did not require Zzyym to lie about gender by picking either male or female.

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They picked up the UPS package with the passport after getting an early morning text and phone call from their lawyer, Paul Castillo, of Lambda Legal, that it had arrived. Zzyym had stayed up late celebrating Intersex Awareness Day with two visiting activists, the Associated Press reported.

While Zzyym expressed their gratitude after finally receiving the passport, they also asserted that the goal was to help the "next generation of intersex people win recognition as full citizens with rights".

Do other countries issue this passport?

Interestingly, gender was not at all required to be included on passports before the 1970s. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a UN agency that sets global standards for machine-readable passports, recognises three sex categories: female, male, or ¡°X¡± for unspecified.

Today around 15 nations around the world let their people change their gender to a legalized non-binary or third gender identifier on their passport.

The list includes Argentina, Austria, Australia, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, India and Nepal. Yes, India is in the list, too. Although it requires citizens to provide medical certifications or other documents in order to obtain an X status on their documents. Austria, Colombia, Germany, and Ireland follow the similar process.

Just two years earlier, Canada had also introduced gender-neutral passports with an X category after a number of provinces made non-binary markers available for birth certificates and driver's license.

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Argentina, Australia, Denmark, Iceland, Nepal and New Zealand implemented X markers in the last decade or so.

Apart from these countries, Malta's move to broaden gender identity on government documents is noteworthy. Malta has provided one of the most comprehensive safeguards for transgender persons in the world with passing the landmark Gender Identity, Gender Expression, and Sex Characteristics Bill in 2015.

Citizens of the country can update their gender identity without having to undergo medical treatment, though they may still be required to swear an oath in front of a notary as a witness.

While the Netherlands released its first gender-neutral passport in 2018, it is now working to eliminate gender markings from all national identifying documents. Last year, the Dutch government declared that gender markers would be phased out over the following five years.

This significant decision, as advocates hope, will be helpful in preventing potential harms inflicted upon non-binary and trans persons.