The United States has issued its first passport with an “X” gender designation and expects to be able to offer the option to nonbinary, intersex, and gender-nonconforming people early next year, the State Department said Wednesday. Jessica Stern, the U.S. special diplomatic envoy for LGBTQ rights,said the moved bring the government documents in line with the “lived reality” that there is a wider spectrum of human sex characteristics than is reflected in the previous two designations. “When a person obtains identity documents that reflect their true identity, they live with greater dignity and respect,” Stern said.
The department now also allows applicants to self-select their gender as male or female, no longer requiring them to provide medical certification if their gender did not match that listed on their other identification documents. The United States joins a handful of countries, including Australia,, New Zealand, Nepal and Canada, in allowing its citizens to designate a gender other than male or female on their passports. Stern said her office planned to talk about the U.S.′ experience with the change in its interactions around the world and she hopes that might help inspire other governments to offer the option. “We see this as a way of affirming and uplifting the human rights of trans and intersex and gender-nonconforming and nonbinary people everywhere,” she said. (Newsmax) | 
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