5 ms·
Cool, though I wonder how long this convention will stick, granted that this is a policy by executive fiat -- It would suck for a lot of people if they suddenly
by chaorace 5y ago
Cool, though I wonder how long this convention will stick, granted that this is a policy by executive fiat -- It would suck for a lot of people if they suddenly had to redo their passports 4/8/12 years down the road.
Is this an international first, by the way? If so, I wonder if other countries will adopt this "X" designation
- tomlockwood 5y agoAustralia has X as an option for passports. I think some other countries do too, but not sure.
- _trampeltier 5y agoA few countrys have X already. Some countrys talk about it.
- mypastself 5y agoTo be honest, I’m not sure what the purpose of having such information in a passport is in the first place.
- kayodelycaon 5y agoBecause sex is(/was?) considered an identifying feature, in the same way eye color, skin color, height, weight, and other physical characteristics are identifying. Now, should it be on there? Maybe? But if it must be, having an opt-out option is important, because people may not look male or female, rendering making identification less accurate. That's before we get into gender, where forcing someone to pick male or female when they may be neither is rather dehumanizing.
- Hamuko 5y ago>Because sex is(/was?) considered an identifying feature, in the same way eye color, skin color, height, weight, and other physical characteristics are identifying. Do American passports have all those things?
- tzs 5y agoThe application asks for height, hair color, and eye color. I don't see any of those printed on mine in any obvious way. There are no fields for them like there is for sex. They could be in the electronic information, though, or encoded in the long string of digits at the bottom of the passport.
- tablespoon 5y ago> Do American passports have all those things? Some do. My driver's license is a also a passport card and has all of those except skin color.
- Muromec 5y agoBecause passports were invited when women were not necessarily able to travel alone. Also even today US government discriminates against women when issuing visas in certain countries.
- yokaze 5y agoThe X comes from a pre-existing standard from the ICAO, which gives the options F,M,X. X standing for unspecified.
- bloak 5y agoThe ICAO standard says a passport must have a field labelled "sex" containing F, M or X; in this context, X means "unknown" or "unspecified". About a dozen countries will issue passports with an X in the "sex" field, but I'm not sure which of them, if any, will do it for anyone who asks for it, which seems to be what's proposed for the US. The really radical thing to do would be to only issue passports with an X in the "sex" field. That way non-binary people wouldn't be treated any differently.