Starting on Aug. 31, Canadians will have a new way to identify their sex on passports and other government documents: “X” will join the options of male and female.
The decision to allow the third category, indicating an “unspecified” sex, is intended to protect the rights of Canadian citizens to identify by the gender of their choice, the country’s immigration department said in announcing the change.
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A new law passed in June amended the Canadian Human Rights Act to include nondiscrimination protections for gender identity and gender expression.
attention the trans and nonbinary community living in the UK: the government is planning on streamlining and de-medicalising the process for legally changing your gender!
in order to do so, the government is running a survey for people in the community who are 16 yo and older and currently living in the UK. the survey is anonymous and can be taken here.
the survey will run from the 23rd of july 2017 to the 15th of october 2017
Jeremy Corbyn has challenged Theresa May to allow people to self-identify as transgender without having to go through medical checks, pledging that Labour would support any government attempt to change the law.
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But Corbyn said May would have his support if she scrapped the requirement for trans people to undergo medical tests, and instead allowed them to self-identify their gender, saying legislation could be passed with Labour backing if the Tories and DUP had a free vote.
“Discrimination has gone on too long. The Gender Recognition Act does not allow trans people to self-identify their gender and forces them to undergo invasive medical tests. This is wrong,” he said.
“Labour recognised this in our manifesto, pledging to update the act. Theresa May told Pink News that ‘changes need to be made’ but failed to include anything on this in the Conservative manifesto.
“So, I say to her today, Labour will help you keep your promise. Bring forward a bill to update the act and improve trans rights and Labour will back you. You can give your MPs and the DUP a free vote and Labour will make it law.”
There is no mention in the article of legal recognition of nonbinary genders, which is disappointing. I am a little nervous of a shoving-us-under-the-bus situation, even though this would be a hugely positive step for binary trans people.
Jamie Shupe entered the military years before most of the country had heard of the word “nonbinary.”
Shupe, who uses the pronoun “they,” was born in 1963 and grew up in southern Maryland knowing that the way the rest of the world saw them — male — was wrong. But any efforts to correct that, or act less masculine, were met with abuse: a slap from their mother, someone calling them a “sissy.”
So they grew up side-stepping the issue by hiding how they felt. They always dated women — “that was shielding me” from more abuse, they said. At 19, after graduating from high school and looking for the next step, they entered the armed forces and stayed there for 18 years.
The next part of their story reveals a gap between the words that people like Shupe use to describe themselves and those that the state assigns. Now — in part because of Shupe, and buoyed by a growing movement for LGBTQ rights — state and federal agencies are confronting those issues as they apply to IDs for the first time. What happens next could make a huge difference for people who are neither male nor female, marking a new chapter in our understanding of gender.
In the unit’s morning meetings, Shupe said the unit’s first sergeant, a religious Christian, would preach about Sodom and Gomorrah. Meanwhile, at home, Shupe was beginning to experiment with wearing women’s clothing, trying to understand why they felt so out of place. “I didn’t have an understanding that I was transgender,” they said.
The definition of “nonbinary” and “genderqueer” can vary for different people, but both convey the feeling of living outside of the gender binary — in other words, outside of the “male vs. female” structure that is so predominant in everyday life. Some people who identify as nonbinary are also transgender or intersex, and while some use the pronoun “they,” others stick to “he” or “she.”
Nearly a decade into their service, Shupe’s gender dysphoria had intensified, and another few years later, they were discharged with an injury (unrelated to their gender identity), causing them to go into early retirement as their depression became worse and worse. After coming across a Reddit forum for transgender people and talking to their wife, they decided to transition to female.
But in rural western Maryland, where they were living at the time, “getting medical care was next to impossible,” they said. Shupe and their wife moved to Pittsburgh, where they found a clinic that allowed Shupe to begin hormone treatment. And in 2014, they filed to change the sex marker on their driver’s license from M to F.
The process to do this varies by state, and in about half the states in the U.S., a person must provide proof that they have medically transitioned with surgery or hormone therapy in order to change their license. In others, a note from a physician is sufficient. Shupe’s doctor helped them fill out the necessary papers, and they were able to get a license marked “F” from the state of Pennsylvania.
But Shupe was coming to realize that they did not identify with other transgender women. “The reason I wasn’t fitting in was because I wasn’t one,” they said. They moved to Oregon in November 2014, where they joined a genderqueer support group. “They totally clicked with me,” Shupe said.
In April, Shupe petitioned the Multnomah County court for a sex change — this time as nonbinary. Petitioning a court is a standard procedure in states that require a court order before changing a person’s license. Though when the court granted the order, it was the first time that anyone had been legally designated as nonbinary in U.S. history.
Shupe was thrilled and LGBTQ advocates celebrated as the case made headline after headline. But when it came to getting a license, “I knew right off the bat it was just going to be one battle after another,” Shupe said.
Nearly four months after filing that petition, Shupe doesn’t have a license that reflects their gender and no idea of when they ever will.
What’s happening in Oregon?
The decision caught the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles, which issues driver’s licenses, off-guard, spokesman David House said.
“When we have a change that goes through the legislature, we have months to study it and prepare for it before laws pass. This is different, because this came out of the blue. We didn’t have any advance warning of this,” he said.
Now, the agency is researching the question of how changing their system would affect how other agencies — for example, law enforcement — use and store shared data. From their research, “not a lot of jurisdictions” in the U.S. have ever looked into this before, House said.
When the decision came out, the Oregon DMV asked the state Department of Justice to research “what needs to change” in order for them to comply with the court’s decision, House said. But the department has not issued any guidance to them so far. “It’s going to be months or perhaps more than a year” before Shupe has an accurate license, House said.
The DMV isn’t the only one looking at these questions — so is the federal government. That case revolves around Dana Zzyym, an intersex and nonbinary person who sued the State Department after they were denied a passport.
While filling out the forms to apply for a passport, Zzyym saw that the only available options were “male” or “female.” Instead of choosing one, they wrote “intersex,” which is not currently an available option for U.S. passports. After they were denied, LGBTQ advocacy organization Lambda Legal filed suit on their behalf against the U.S. State Department, seeking a gender-neutral option for U.S.-issued passports, according to Paul Castillo, who is currently representing Zzyym.
Some groups, including Lambda Legal, believe that identification should leave off sex altogether. Some already do: New York City IDs, Social Security cards and a number of others do not require sex. Another option is to make the letter “X” an option for licenses and passports as an alternative to “M” or “F,” which is already in use in several countries, including Australia and New Zealand, under an existing international standard, Castillo said.
The U.S. currently recognizes passports from other countries that are labeled with an “X.” People holding those passports “are able to enter and exist in the U.S., assuming they meet all other visa requirements. Yet, our own citizens who are nonbinary cannot even leave the U.S. with an accurate passport,” Castillo said.
In filings for the case, the State Department said that “Allowing passports with sex markers other than ‘F’ or ‘M’ would compromise the department’s efforts to prevent identity theft and passport fraud by upending the department’s long-established system for validating the identity and citizenship of passport applicants and requiring the department to rely on less reliable and less uniform identification documents.”
If the court issues a decision in Zzyym’s favor, it won’t be the first time the federal government has recognized the existence of nonbinary people. Castillo pointed to Section 1557 in the Affordable Care Act, the part of the law that prohibits discrimination based on gender identity. The section specifies that an individual’s gender “may be male, female, neither, or a combination of male and female.”
The Federal Register’s website provides more context on why the section reads that way: “The insertion of this clause helps clarify that those individuals with non-binary gender identities are protected under the rule.”
Castillo said a ruling in the Zzyym case may come within the next 1-2 months, which could affect existing standards for U.S.-issued passports. Meanwhile, in Oregon, the DMV “needs more time,” House said.
Why IDs matter
For people whose IDs are already inconsistent with their presentation, having an accurate ID could mean the difference between safety and harassment.
Ellie*, a transfeminine nonbinary person in their late 20s, always feels nervous using their driver’s license as ID, since it lists their sex as male. “‘That’s not you’ [is] a frustrating response for me to get when I show someone my ID,” they said. “I feel better about having an ID symbol that I might need to explain to people than one they’ll think is incompatible with my appearance.”
And having an accurate ID may help public understanding of what nonbinary means in general, said Michel*, who requested anonymity because they have not come out to many people.
“I have no intentions of coming out to my employer at the moment, primarily because they don’t seem to have a decent grasp on basic trans issues. Having an official form or ID might make it easier to come out,” they said.
For others, having another ID option would help mitigate the complications that arise when different documents say different things in situations like health care.
For Cyree Jarelle Johnson, these complications were particularly damaging. Johnson, who has lupus, had insurance documents labeled with an M, but their state ID was labeled F. That discrepancy meant that their primary care provider could not continue treating them under their insurance, and cost them months of care while they changed their driver’s license to match the insurance. If they had a gender-neutral option the first time they applied for an ID, they said, that conflict could have been avoided.
“It was extremely distressing,” they said. “I’m trans, I’m just not a trans man.”
Michele Herzog, who is 22 years old and nonbinary, was shocked during a routine visit to a Planned Parenthood in Massachusetts to find that their forms only included a “male” or “female” option.
“I have a dating app that lets me choose from over 20 gender options, and a medical provider only gave me two?” she said. “I am a firm and trusting believer in Planned Parenthood, and I felt as though an organization I was proud of suddenly didn’t apply to me.” Planned Parenthood responded to her concerns on Twitter:
When asked for comment, Planned Parenthood spokesman Liz Clark said that people’s experiences at different health centers may vary when it comes to patient intake forms, since the organization does not have one set of medical forms it uses across the country. She added:
Even though some nonbinary people worry a mark on their ID will invite more discrimination or harassment, Michel said, “any kind of legal recognition is better than nothing.”
Tomorrow, the Obama administration is expected to issue guidance regarding transgender students in schools. More specifically, the guidelines will tell schools they cannot discriminate against transgender students with regards to bathrooms, housing, sports teams, and many more contexts.
President Obama has been an advocate for trans students for a while, but this will likely be the most direct statement on behalf of trans students yet.
“When a school provides sex-segregated activities and facilities, transgender students must be allowed to participate in such activities and access such facilities consistent with their gender identity,” says a copy of the letter obtained by BuzzFeed News.
The rules apply to restrooms, locker rooms, sports teams, fraternities, sororities, housing, and more.
According to the guidance, school officials cannot require that a transgender student provide identifying documents, such as a birth certificate, or undergo any form of medical validation to qualify. “There is no medical diagnosis or treatment requirement that students must meet as a prerequisite to being treated consistent with their gender identity,” says the letter to school administrators.
This. Is. Incredible.
it was unconstitutional and i hope all the legislators who passed this are impeached or fired.
February is upon us, and the picture for anti-transgender legislation
has begun to emerge. In 2015 there were 20 state-level bills intended to
target transgender people. All of them were either defeated or carried
over to the next legislative session. This year has seen the number grow
to at least 28 pieces of legislation, and we’ll likely see more before
the sessions are over. […]
State Sen. Ron Alting. the man behind Indiana’s push for gay rights dropped this LGB bomb Monday.
Alting said “Its (transgender visibility) is so new to legislators and the public I might add, has trouble getting their hands around it understanding it’ Alting continued “Gender language would not be in the best interest of Hoosiers and would not be in the best interest of the sexual orientation (effort) for equal rights. Period.’
Alting told Wifi.com this is something he has been working on for the past 20 years.
“Getting sexual orientation into the civil rights code of Indiana is enormous, enormous,” said Alting. He said Senate Bill 344 has the most potential of passing. The bill prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation but not gender identity.
“I think with the transgender language the bill will struggle getting votes to get the entire bill out of the Senate,” said Alting. He said tabling transgender protections, for right now, is in the best interest of getting equal rights for lesbian and gay people.
CLICK THE HEADER LINK TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE AND WATCH THE VIDEO.
Oh hey, it’s like Barney Frank and the HRC all over again!
Jesus
in which cis gays just fucking stampede over trans ppl in the effort to further their own assimilation
this type of mess. it don’t make any sense, politically and humanely.
An international travel document. An “O” for other, rather than X for indeterminate or intermediate or whatnot. And a self-determined gender marker. THAT is how you do legal gender.
Don’t get too excited when you read about legal “third genders” - they are usually based on rigid biological determinism to dictate “gender.” Really appreciate this article for pointing out these contradictions.
