Biden Administration adds ‘X’ for Trans and Non-Binary Americans
‘X’ Gender Markers will be Added to Federal Documents.
March 4, 2021
After years of lobbying and lawsuits, nonbinary and intersex people may finally be getting passports that reflect who they are: LGBTQ advocates have been in talks with the Biden administration about executive action to add “X” gender markers to all federal documents, including passports and Social Security cards, according to the ACLU.
The White House declined to offer a timeline for the rollout or comment on how the policy might be implemented. But Matt Hill, a spokesperson at the White House, said President Joe Biden remains committed to issuing nonbinary IDs, a promise he made during his campaign, stated Biden.
Arli Christian, a campaign strategist at the ACLU and one of the nation’s leading policy experts on transgender ID issues, wants the administration to issue X gender markers across all federal documents within Biden’s first 100 days in office, according to USA Today. But advocates hope that in the long run, gender can be stricken from IDs unless it’s necessary, such as passports where international law requires gender markers.
“It cuts across so many areas of discrimination against trans people, whether we’re talking about being respected in school, safety, employment, housing,” Christian said to ACLU.
The ACLU is also pushing the administration to adopt a policy that allows for self-attestation of gender, allowing trans, nonbinary and intersex people to update their federal gender markers without submitting medical documentation of a gender change. Currently, 20 states and Washington, D.C., have such policies. The White House did not comment on whether they would adopt a similar policy, and Biden’s LGBTQ campaign platform did not get into details about the plan. X gender markers are offered in 19 states and Washington, D.C