There is a petition on the UK Parliament website to legally recognise nonbinary as a gender – which would include an X marker on UK passports for nonbinary people.

@AnguaDelphine

@syhr yay!

@syhr @sunflowerinrain

So, unfortunately, there's a treaty for passport standardisation which requires gender information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine-readable_passport

Getting an X in the UK is easier than changing the treaty is easier than getting rid of borders.

@syhr @mynameistillian @radioclash

Updating one's documentation is always a tradeoff. For many trans people, trying to travel on an unupdated passport means enduring a _lot_ of harassment and potentially being denied entry or exit (and thus getting stranded overseas).

The X option will make travel easier for some people and may also be a way that some cis people might express solidarity.

@celesteh @sunflowerinrain Good to know!

@syhr @sunflowerinrain gender on ID saves lives. medical treatment is very different between male and female, and in an emergency having that information could easily be the difference between life and death. they probably should list your blood-type too.

@syhr Why are people fighting for this instead of to eliminate gender markers? The only reason to put a gender marker on anyone's document is to give authorities a license to discriminate.

@PedestrianError There's been some discussion about that under the toot

@mynameistillian@plush.city @syhr@social.coop According to the ICAO standard, the sex field is mandatory but countries can just put X (or < in the MRZ, which is also the filler character) for unspecified:

Where an issuing State or organization does not want to identify the sex, the filler character (<) shall be used in
this field in the MRZ and an X in this field in the VIZ.

So there's nothing preventing them from effectively abolishing gender markers on passports by just putting X for everyone (which they should do)

@syhr U.S. ally here. Wish I could sign.

@noisytoot @mynameistillian This is the way

@anneguisinherba

@celesteh technically, all listed formats support «unspecified» option for gender, either X or filler character <...

@syhr @sunflowerinrain

@syhr maybe edit to add that one has to be a British citizen or resident in Britain? I wish it all the success in the world, but it is disappointing to click just to see that one can’t sign

@Starcross @syhr Yes, it'll be cross-referenced against the Electoral Register. I don't imagine you'd be likely to fool them, to be honest.

@alexia @mynameistillian @columbduffy @syhr I'd guess that too. This is the current process that the Home Office use when issuing a passport to a person ("customer"). Since there is no non-binary option for a Gender Recognition Certificate, a British person applying for a passport for the very first time must use the gender that they were assigned at birth.

Ask the customer to tell us what their current gender (male or female) is. This
will be either their gender:

• they were assigned at birth
• in their last British passport
• that was recognised by a Gender Recognition Certificate

@columbduffy @mynameistillian @syhr The UK Home Office will already issue a second passport to British citizens who are deemed at particular risk for traveling to a certain country, or who would be prevented from entering a certain country with their current passport (for instance those who need to travel to Israel despite having already visited Iran).

The UK adopting enbyphobic legislation is a genuinely plausible eventuality, and in such a case, being on the record as non-binary would be dangerous. But if the UK doesn't become actively hostile to non-binary people and the UK starts to allow a non-binary gender marker on new passports, I'm sure they would issue secondary passports (with a binary gender marker) for those people just as with any other group facing difficulty traveling.

@radioclash @mynameistillian @syhr So you can get a passport without any gender marker in the UK? If it's a choice, roughly what percent of people (of all genders, cis and trans) choose to display a gender on their passport?

@PedestrianError @mynameistillian @syhr No you can't get a passport without a gender marker in the UK. That's what the petition is asking for.

@sunflowerinrain @syhr Unfortunately the only mechanism that the UK has currently for changing the gender marker on a passport involves the holder of said passport obtaining a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC). It's already hard enough for trans people to get a GRC, so I don't think it'll be possible for cis people to change their gender marker any time soon. The GRC process is also very invasive so there's little chance a cis person would be willing to lie in order to get one, IMHO.