UK Government Under Pressure to Add Gender ‘X’ to Passports

A gay rights lobby group has called for British passports to feature the letter ‘X’ to cater for those who do not want to identify as male or female.

LGBT organization Stonewall said allowing people the option of declaring that they do not wish to be recognized by mainstream labels would be positive for those who face difficulties at passport control.

Tara Stone, of Stonewall, said: ‘Some trans people find it very validating of their identity to have that gender designator. It basically allows them to express their identity.’

A UK government spokesman said it has already committed to ‘reviewing gender markers in official documents’.

According to a recent official government paper, an estimated 650,000 people in Britain ‘are gender incongruent to some degree’. The population of Britain is approximately 65 million, meaning that 1% of people are therefore thought to be ‘gender incongruent’.

Australian and Irish passport holders have been able to choose to be identified under the letter ‘X’ since 2011.

Source: Heatstreet

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