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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
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State Department issues first passport with an X marking gender to nonbinary Coloradan

(CN) — Dana Zzyym on Wednesday became the first nonbinary American to be issued a U.S. passport that accurately reflects their gender with an X for sex instead of an M or an F.

“I almost burst into tears when I opened the envelope, pulled out my new passport, and saw the ‘X’ stamped boldly under ‘sex,’” Zzyym said in a statement provided by Lamba Legal, which represented Zzyym throughout a six-year lawsuit against the federal government.

“I’m also ecstatic that other intersex and nonbinary U.S. citizens will soon be able to apply for passports with the correct gender marker,” Zzyym added. “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.”

The birth certificate Zzyym's parents received in 1958 originally left the gender line blank because Zzyym was born with “ambiguous external sex characteristics." Raised male, Zzyym was five when they underwent medically unnecessary corrective surgery at their parents' request.

In 1995, the six-year Navy veteran changed their name to Dana Alix Zzyym.

Zzyym now proudly identifies as intersex and uses plural pronouns. When presented with the passport application under Obama-appointed Secretary of State John Kerry, Zzyym could not accurately check the box for male or female under sex, so they marked X.

After their application was denied, Zzyym sued the State Department in October 2015 claiming the department denied their passport application “on the basis of personal characteristics rather than area restrictions affecting all citizens."

“By denying Dana a U.S. passport with a gender marker that respects Dana’s identity, defendants lock Dana within the confines of our nation’s borders with no legal means to depart the United States,” the original complaint said.

Little did Zzyym know their quest for an accurate passport would bounce between two federal courts during the next two presidential administrations, with the federal agency citing again and again the bureaucratic hardship of changing the entire system to accommodate one person.

But Zzyym is not alone — an estimated 1.7% of the population who identify as intersex.

After five years in court and two remands to the agency, U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson found the State Department overstepped its authority and issued a narrow order in 2018 for the State Department to print a passport for Zzyym.

The 10th Circuit reversed the decision in May 2020 and remanded the case a third time. But this past June, the State Department announced it would finally add a third gender marker to the passport.

Since Zzyym first applied for a passport, at least nine other states have adopted policies allowing intersex identification on official documents: California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont and Washington state.

For several years, Zzyym reported they longed to travel to continue their advocacy work but missed opportunities in Mexico and Amsterdam because they had been denied a passport. Zzyym will now be able to travel to continue their work for as associate director for the Intersex Campaign for Equality.

“The department has issued the first U.S. passport with an X gender marker,” the State Department confirmed in a statement. “The department also continues to work closely with other U.S. government agencies to ensure as smooth a travel experience as possible for all passport holders, regardless of their gender identity.”

The federal agency intends to introduce the “X” option on passport applications beginning in 2022.

The U.S. joins 17 other countries that acknowledge nonbinary citizens, including Thailand, New Zealand and Germany,

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Categories / Civil Rights, Government

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