The US issued its first-ever passport with an “X” gender designation Wednesday to a Colorado Navy veteran who had been locked in a legal battle with the State Department over the issue since 2015.
Dana Zzyym, 63, confirmed that they had received the document in a statement issued through Lambda Legal.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement that all passport applicants will be able to choose to identify as “X” rather than “F” or “M,” for “female” or “male,” once the department completes the required “system and form updates” early next year
“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,” Price added.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced June 30 that the department would offer the “X” gender marker on passport applications. On the same day, Blinken announced that applicants would have the option of identifying as male or female and would not need medical certification if their choice differs from the gender listed on other documents like a birth certificate.
Zzyym sued the State Department in 2015 after they were denied a passport for failing to check male or female on an application — instead writing in “intersex.”
In May 2020, a federal appeals court ordered the department to reconsider Zzyym’s passport application, ruling that forcing intersex people to choose whether to identify as male or female “injects inaccuracy into the data”.
“A chef might label a jar of salt a jar of sugar, but the label does not make the salt any sweeter,” the court wrote. “Nor does requiring intersex people to mark ‘male’ or ‘female’ on an application make the passport any more accurate.”
Zzyym was born with ambiguous physical sexual characteristics but was raised as a boy and had several surgeries that failed to make them appear fully male, according to court filings.
Zzyym served in the Navy as a male but later came to identify as intersex while working and studying at Colorado State University.
The State Department’s denial of Zzyym’s passport prevented them from being able to go to two Organization Intersex International meetings.
At least a dozen other countries offer passports with gender markers other than “M” or “F,” according to Lamba Legal. They include Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, India, Malta, Nepal, New Zealand and Pakistan.
Jessica Stern, the country’s special diplomatic envoy for LGBTQ rights, said her office planned to talk about the US experience with the change in its interactions around the world and added that 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.
With Post wires