Biden Administration Announces Pro-Transgender Policies
metroweekly.comThe Associated Press.Twenty-one U.S. states and the District of Columbia currently offer gender-neutral options on official identification, including driver’s licenses.
Fifteen countries around the world — Argentina, Austria, Australia, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, India and Nepal — currently offer a third gender or gender-neutral option on passports.
Last October, Naval veteran and intersex advocate Dana Zzyym received the first-ever U.S. passport with a gender-neutral “X” marker following a six-year battle to obtain a passport reflecting their correct gender identity.Introducing the “X” marker, like the one obtained by Zzyym, will bring a measure of consistency for transgender, nonbinary or intersex individuals who live in the 22 U.S.
jurisdictions where nonbinary gender markers on licenses are available, allowing them to have a passport that matches their licenses, state identification cards, and — in most of those jurisdictions — vital documents such as birth certificates.Advocates hope that providing that consistency will prevent transgender, nonbinary and intersex individuals from being “outed” against their will or experiencing discrimination or harassment that can result when they are forced to submit various forms of documentation that either don’t match each other or don’t match the person’s gender identity and expression.Visitors to the White House will soon also be able to select an “X” gender marker option in the White House Worker and Visitor Entry System, which is used to conduct screening background checks for visitors to the executive mansion.
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