Americans will be able to select an X gender designation on their passports starting next month, the State Department said, a new option for those who don’t identify as exclusively male or female.
The State Department said Thursday the X gender designation will become an option for U.S. citizens to select on their passport applications starting April 11. The X gender marker will be defined as “unspecified or another gender identity" on forms, the department said, based on input from members of the LGBTQ community and others.
The choice will become available on other documentation forms next year including passport cards or emergency passports, the department said.
The move is part of a federal effort to expand options available for applicants and promote equal rights for transgender, nonbinary and gender nonconforming people. Americans will also be able to change their gender on these forms without presenting supporting medical documentation.
The State Department issued its first passport with an X gender designation in October 2021 to Dana Zzyym, an intersex and nonbinary U.S. Navy veteran who sued the department in 2015 over the issue.
“It took six years, but to have an accurate passport, one that doesn’t force me to identify as male or female but recognizes I am neither, is liberating," Mx. Zzyym, who uses the gender-neutral honorific, said in a statement at the time.
More than 1.2 million people in the U.S. identify as nonbinary, which means their gender identity doesn’t align with traditional male or female definitions, according to a June 2021 study from the University of California, Los Angeles.
In recent years, more U.S. states and companies have offered the option of an X gender designation on driver’s licenses and other identification documents.
The Biden administration on Thursday released details of several other initiatives it said will improve the airport travel experience for transgender and nonbinary people. The Transportation Security Administration said it is changing its gender-based Advanced Imaging Technology to decrease additional screenings for some “due to alarms in sensitive areas."
The White House also laid out steps to improve mental-health resources for transgender youth. And it said the new gender designation option will be offered in other parts of the federal government, including as a choice on forms individuals use to file with discrimination charges through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The Human Rights Campaign, an advocacy group, said Thursday the Biden administration’s efforts “come at a much needed time."
“Today the White House is proving that they do have the transgender community’s back," said Joni Madison, interim president of the Human Rights Campaign, in a statement.
The federal efforts come as lawmakers in some states have introduced and passed measures banning student athletes, particularly transgender girls, from participating in categories that differ from their biological sex at birth. Supporters of the bills say transgender female athletes have a natural physical advantage and the legislation would create a more even playing field for female sports. Opponents say the rules are unnecessary, unconstitutional and deny transgender students opportunities to play school sports like their peers.
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Republican governors in Utah and Indiana vetoed such bills last week, differing from GOP leaders in other states who have signed similar rules into law. Utah lawmakers voted to override the governor’s veto Friday, and Republicans in Indiana hope to override the veto when they convene later this spring.
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