Transgender Americans call on Biden to introduce X for non-binary and transgender travellers’ passports

Campaigners are asking for passports and other forms of ID that accurately reflect gender identity, following passing of the Equality Act

Transgender and non-binary Americans are calling on Joe Biden to introduce passports for non-binary travellers that recognise their gender identity with an “X”.

If introduced, the classification for all transgender and non-binary persons would build on a campaign promise made by the US president, whose administration recently oversaw the introduction of the Equality Act.

The piece of legislation — and another of Mr Biden’s pledges while campaigning for office — outlaws discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender.

Following that, campaigners want Mr Biden to go one step further with the recognition of non-binary gender identities for Americans with passports.

As CNN reported on Wednesday, eight countries worldwide already allow transgender or non-binary individuals to mark their identity with an “X”, rather than the standard “M” for male or “F” for female.

And already in the US, almost 20 states allow an “X” designation on other forms of ID, such as state ID cards and licences, according to the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU).

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“We need IDs that accurately reflect who we are so we can travel, apply for jobs, and enter public establishments without risk of harassment or harm,” says the ACLU in it’s campaign for X-marked passports, “They The People”.

The campaign, which has so far received over 70,000 signatures, will deliver a petition for X-marked passports to the US president on 31 March — the annual Trans Day of Visibility.

It comes after the Democrat pledged to build on Obama administration policies for amending gender on US passports, by allowing all transgender individuals to “have access to identification documents that accurately reflect their gender identity”.

So far, no action on recognising non-binary and transgender individuals on US passports has been taken by Mr Biden, meaning that individuals must chose between male or female exclusively.

According to analysis by the American Journal of Public Health, there are around a million adults in the US who are transgender.

And of those people, around 700,000 are believed to be non-binary, and do not identify using either male or female, but “X”, resulting in cases of harassment when asked to prove their gender to officials.

Research carried out by the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) in 2015 found that 28 per cent of transgender and non-binary individuals had suffered from verbal harassment as a result of showing their gender ID.

While countries issuing X-marked passports cannot guarantee that a passport holder will be allowed in by other countries, it will allow those who identify as non-binary to hold ID that accurately reflects their identity.