If you're nonbinary and in the UK, this is relevant to your interests!!
I recently wrote to my MP asking them to support EDM47, which states 'That this House recognises the issues faced by those in the UK who identify themselves as non-gender, bi-gender or intersex' and 'therefore urges the Government and HM Passport Office to make non-gender-specific X passports available to those UK passport holders who do not identify with a particular gender' (I've cut out at lot of the motion there - please do go and read it). My MP wrote back that they couldn't sign due to their position in the government, but passed my concerns on to other relevant parties.
I expected that to be the end of it, then I got a letter back from the Passport Office forwarded via my MP. (Note: I haven’t obscured her address because it’s her public office address.)
I haven't studied it in great detail, though a few things caught my eye, but share it here for further commentary and information for the nonbinary community.
Transcript below:
30 March 2015 Dear Ms Onwurah You are receiving a response from an official in accordance with procedures for handling correspondence during the pre-election period. Thank you for your letter of 25 February 2015 on behalf of your constituents regarding the use of gender marking in the British passport. Your letter has been passed to me for reply. Her Majesty's Passport Office (HM Passport Office) then the Identity and Passport Service, undertook an internal review into the use of gender markings in response to an action point in the Coalition Government's Transgender Equality Action Plan published in December 2011. The outcome of the review was that an applicant for a British passport will continue to be required to stipulate either Male or Female gender at the point of application, and that gender willl be contained in the passport when issues. The review was deposited in the House and can be found at http://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2014-0152/Gendermarkings__290114.pdf. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) governs standards regarding passports. Our review recognised that a very small number of countries had adopted the option set out by ICAO which provides for the use of the prefix 'X' to be used to indicate that gender of the applicant was indeterminate/unspecified/intersex. The use of 'X' is a matter of choice for individual countries. However, the UK does not see sufficient benefits for the British passport holder to place an 'X' in the British passport. Additionally, UK law recognises only male and female gender. To apply an 'X' would require a change in domestic primary legislation. Therefore, this issue does not relate only to passports, and consideration would have to be given to the impact on other areas of legislation such as sex discrimination, nationality adoption, human embryology, immigration and gender recognition. Gender in passports is an important identifier. It is a biographic detail for confirming identity and enables the correct gender to be applied to foreign and gender neutral names. It enables appropriate customer interactions and assists in accurate nationality determination (through a 'Mother' and/or 'Father'). Transgendered persona can use their passport as evidence of their acquired gender and as proof of identity to access gender-specific services. We remain open to suggestions for change but such changes would be on the basis that it is required by law, or that it provided additional benefits to the applicant and that the high standards to public and personal safety achieved by the passport were not diluted. There are no current plans to change domestic legislation to add or remove the male and female gender, and equally there are no current plans to make this change to the passport process. There are no plans by ICAO to amend the current international standards to provide for removal of gender markings from passports or the passport application process, and the UK has no plans to depart from standard. We do not consider that using the passport is the means by which to make a fundamental change to gender recognition in the UK. We will continue to monitor any relevant changes in domestic and international circumstnaces in the respect of 'X' markings in passports. Yours sincerely Alan Brown Deputy Director, Policy
A few thing that jumped out at me - you may notice others:
Gender in passports is an important identifier. It is a biographic detail for confirming identity and enables the correct gender to be applied to foreign and gender neutral names. What about people for whom gender-neutral is the 'correct gender'?
We remain open to suggestions for change but such changes would be on the basis that it is required by law, or that it provided additional benefits to the applicant and that the high standards to public and personal safety achieved by the passport were not diluted. At least they're 'open to suggestions for changes', which is positive, but the part about 'high standards of public and personal safety' worries me - it does not diminish the safety of a country's borders to acknowledge people of genders outside the binary living or wishing to visit there.
Transgendered persona can use their passport as evidence of their acquired gender and as proof of identity to access gender-specific services. - Trangendered? Acquired? Ouch! Bad terminology, bad! (Also, many nb people, self included, consider themselves trans and the whole rest of the letter is telling me I can’t use a passport to evidence my ‘acquired’ (hah!) gender.)
There are no current plans to change domestic legislation to add or remove the male and female gender. Okay, fair play in terms of plans to change domestic legislation but I find the 'male and female gender' part problematic - it hauls it back to the binary. I personally would have preferred 'add or remove any gender' or 'make changes to the male and female genders currently used or acknowledge any others'.
Overall I don't think this is wholly negative (but then, I'm ever an optimist. And a terrible... activist(?) because I have an awful tendency to go 'oh, well, look, they tried') but there's much, much more to be done. Much of the language used is problematic, cisgendered, and though I don't think transphobic deliberately, dangerously misinformed. I welcome comments and further thoughts!
Taggins mxactivist, nonbinarylondon, nonbinaryresource, nonbinary as any one of you will know much better than to do with this than I.
