In June, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that Americans could choose which gender is displayed on their passports, thereby allowing a third gender option.
This Wednesday, the State Department announced that that it has issued one, to a Colorado resident by the name of Dana Zzyym, associate director of the Intersex Campaign for Equality and a client of Lambda Legal
It is the first of its kind, denoted with an ‘X,’ for non-binary, intersex, and gender non-conforming U.S. citizens.
“I want to reiterate, on the occasion of this passport issuance, the Department of State’s commitment to promoting the freedom, dignity, and equality of all people — including LGBTQI+ persons,” said State Department spokesperson Ned Price in a statement.
But America is far behind many other countries, for instance, in Canada they’ve had gender-neutral passports and driver’s licenses with an X category for at least two years.
And 15 other countries have already allowed people to amend their gender to a legalized non-binary or third gender identifier on their passport, including Argentina, Austria, Australia, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, India and Nepal.