US — . The United States government announced that it has issued its first passport with the letter ‘X’ in the sex marker field to accommodate “non-binary, intersex, and gender non-conforming persons,” and that the option will become widely available early next year. The United States Department of State — Bureau of Consular Affairs already allows passport applicants to “select the binary gender option (M or F) you would like printed on your US passport, even if the gender you select does not match the gender on your supporting documentation such as a birth certificate, previous passport, or state ID. We no longer require medical documentation to change the gender marker on your U.S. passport.”

In October, Dana Alix Zzyym of Fort Collins, Colorado came forward as the first person to be issued a passport with an ‘X’ sex designation.

In 2015, Zzyym refused to mark off ‘M’ for male or ‘F’ for female on an application for a passport, and was denied the identifying document. With the support of Lambda Legal, a US organization with the declared mission of serving “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities as well as people living with HIV/AIDS,” Zzyym mounted a legal challenge that October, which bounced between two federal courts over the years until now.

The 63-year-old, who was raised a boy and served as male in the Navy, began identifying as ‘non-binary’ and ‘intersex’ while working and studying at Colorado State University. Zzyym claimed to never have appeared “fully male,” even after several surgeries to correct “ambiguous physical sexual characteristics.”

Congenital conditions of sexual development affect 0.018% of the population. Each of the conditions is sex-specific. With modern medical science, every human is readily classifiable as either male or female. Many with congenital conditions of sexual development have come forward to publicly oppose the conflation of their conditions with gender identity ideology.

Jessica Stern, who on June 25 was appointed by President Joe Biden to serve as United States Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons at the Department of State, said a third gender marker “is a significant step towards ensuring that our administrative systems account for the diversity of gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics.”

Stern plays a “vital role in leading implementation” of the advancement of the interests of “LGBTQI+ persons around the world” through the use of “US diplomacy and foreign assistance,” a White House briefing revealed earlier this year.

According to the June 25 briefing, Stern worked to promote “gender” globally even before joining the US Department of State. In the role of Executive Director of OutRight Action International, which Stern took in 2012, she “supported the legal registration of LGBTIQ organizations globally, helped secure the mandate of the United Nations Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, expanded the UN General Assembly resolution to include gender identity, and co-founded the UN LGBTI Core Group.” Serving in various human rights institutions, including on “multiple leadership bodies” within The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), enabled the Columbia University adjunct associate professor to become respected as an expert voice to “governments globally” and be featured and quoted in guidance and media worldwide, from the UK’s The Oxford Handbook of Women, Peace and Security (2019), BBC News, and The Guardian, to Qatar’s Al Jazeera, to the Indian Supreme Court.

On the matter of ‘X’ in the sex marker field, the US Department of State said in a statement on Wednesday, October 27: “We look forward to offering this option to all routine passport applicants once we complete the necessary system and form updates in early 2022.”

The US is now one of over a dozen countries – including Argentina, Australia, Canada, Denmark, India, Malta, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Pakistan – to allow sex-neutral passports.

The US Department of State promises: “We are taking further steps toward ensuring the fair treatment of LGBTQI+ U.S. citizens, regardless of their gender or sex.”

On November 20, the Biden administration announced that the White House is “[b]uilding on the State Department’s announcement that it will offer a third gender marker on U.S. passports” by “convening an interagency policy committee to advance a coordinated federal approach to expanding access to accurate and inclusive federal identity documents for transgender and gender diverse people.”

On January 20, the day he was inaugurated to the office of president, Biden’s administration passed “Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.” Shortly before issuing the federal directive, the president-elect selected Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine as Assistant Secretary for Health. Levine, who is male and identifies as a woman, has insisted that puberty blockers, which are routinely prescribed to gender dysphoric youth, are “extremely safe” and beneficial to children and improves their mental health. The claims fly in the face of extensive international scientific research, including clinicians who testified during a UK High Court case to having found an association between puberty blockers and “impairment in brain development, bone strength and significantly higher risks of heart attacks and blood clots,” as well as decreased IQ. The clinicians additionally warned that “suicide in adults is significantly higher after transgendering.”