X Gender Markers May Soon Be Federally Recognized

After years of lobbying and lawsuits, X gender markers may soon be coming to passports, social security cards, and other federal documents. LGBTQ advocates began working with the Biden administration to add these nonbinary gender markers to all federal documents, according to the ACLU. 

“President Biden remains committed to advancing state and federal efforts that allow transgender and nonbinary Americans to update their identification documents to accurately reflect their gender identity, especially as transgender and nonbinary people continue to face harassment or are denied access to services because their identifications documents don’t affirm their identity,” says Matt Hill, a White House spokesperson.

Should these new gender markers be added, nonbinary, intersex, and trans people will finally be able to experience the affirmation that arises from being acknowledged by their government. 

“It cuts across so many areas of discrimination against trans people, whether we’re talking about being respected in school, safety, employment, housing,” says Arli Christian, campaign strategist at the ACLU. 

The ACLU is also pushing for policy that would allow individuals to change 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, however, did not comment on whether they plan on adopting this change. 

Related article: Biden Aims to Protect Transgender Rights

While gender X markers could provide some with much-needed validation and recognition, others argue that visibility comes with a price. 

Legislation is being considered that would require individuals to use the restroom which matches their gender marker on federally issued IDs. With so few gender-neutral bathrooms, some believe that an X marker would only complicate matters for an already marginalized group of people. 

Others have expressed concern with potential discrimination when dealing with police officers. According to the National Center for Transgender Equality’s 2015 U.S. Trans Survey, 58 percent of respondents who had interacted with the police in the year prior to taking the survey had experienced some form of mistreatment such as being verbally harassed, misgendered, physically assaulted, or sexually assaulted.

It is often in the act of presenting legal identification that trans people face some of the worst discrimination—particularly if their legal gender doesn’t match their gender expression. According to the 2015 U.S. Trans Survey, 25 percent of respondents had been verbally harassed when showing an ID that was incongruent with their gender, while 16 percent had been denied services or benefits, and 9 percent had been asked to leave an establishment.

Vice recently interviewed seven nonbinary and intersex people on their experiences with having X gender markers. Here’s some of what they had to say:  

“Sometimes [people understand what it means], and sometimes they don’t. It depends on the people, and it’s sometimes easy and sometimes tedious to explain. But, it is always worth the effort,” says Jack(ie) Colquitt, 22. 

“I’ve found that some people are really confused by it, and often in conversations regarding gender markers, I find that people bring up wanting to know what I, or others that identify like I do, were assigned at birth. That can be pretty frustrating, and you can tell that some people don’t understand how or why that could be intrusive because essentially, they just wanna know what’s in your pants,” says Chanlar Rose, 22. 

Related article: HRC and InterACT Release Guide for Intersex Awareness Day

“It has meant the world to me. I feel like the state sees my human complexity rather than just a barcode … like I can be seen as a third gender rather than asked to fill a binary because of what is in my pants. I’ve suffered much less overt discrimination since the gender marker X has made it into the national press,” Aidan Hill, 26, told Vice. 

Through these testimonials, one thing is made clear: the nonbinary experience is often one filled with intrusive questions regarding one’s genitalia. Many also feel the gender-neutral marker was a fundamental validation of their identity. Society has a long way to go when it comes to learning the appropriate ways in which to traverse the subject of gender identity, but should that stop folks from seeking validation through X gender markers? Lawmakers and ACLU advocates would argue not. 

“Access to an ID that reflects who you are is paramount to the rights of trans people, and so, passing this kind of executive order early in the administration says from the federal government, ‘We see you; we respect you for exactly who you are,’” Arli Christian says