U.S. to issue gender neutral passports

STORY: The State Department in June said U.S. citizens could select their gender on applications without having to submit medical documentation. In October, it issued the first American passport with an “X” gender marker, designed to give nonbinary, intersex and gender-nonconforming people an option other than male or female on their travel document.

“Starting on April 11th, U.S. citizens will be able to select an ‘X’ as their gender marker on their U.S. passport application, and the option will become available for other forms of documentation next year,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters Thursday.

Americans will also be able to select and add their gender to U.S. Social Security cards without medical documentation, beginning in the fall, the Social Security Administration said. The cards currently do not include gender indicators.

The changes were among several measures announced by the Biden administration to mark a “Transgender Day of Visibility,” a day after the Republican governors of Oklahoma and Arizona signed bills banning transgender athletes from girls’ sports in schools.

They joined a growing list of states that have passed or enacted similar laws on a contentious election-year issue. Transgender rights have been pushed to the forefront of the culture wars playing out in parts of the United States in recent years, together with issues such as reproductive rights.

Visiting the White House on Thursday trans Jeopardy! star Amy Schneider weighed in on some of that legislation.

“I think that this backlash right now is temporary. I think that this, you know, that the country overall is on our side and getting more so every day. And I think it’s not going to be too long before these sorts of bills are seen as a thing of the past and no longer what we want to be as a country,” she told reporters.