US Issues Its First Passport with ‘X’ Gender Marker
October 28, 2021
DENVER (AP) — The United States has issued its first passport with an “X” gender designation, marking a milestone in the recognition of the rights of people who do not identify as male or female, and expects to be able to offer the option more broadly next year, the State Department said Wednesday.
The department did not identify the passport recipient, but Dana Zzyym, an intersex activist from Fort Collins, Colorado, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that they received it. Since 2015, Zzyym, who prefers a gender-neutral pronoun, has been in a legal battle with the State Department to obtain a passport that did not require Zzyym to lie about gender by picking either male or female.
Zzyym (pronounced Zimm) picked up the UPS package with the passport after getting an early morning text and phone call from their lawyer, Paul Castillo of Lambda Legal, that it had arrived. Zzyym had stayed up late celebrating Intersex Awareness Day with two visiting activists.
While Zzyym, 63, said it was thrilling to finally get the passport, the goal was to help the next generation of intersex people win recognition as full citizens with rights, rather than travel the globe, Zzyym said.
“I’m not a problem. I’m a human being. That’s the point,” said Zzyym, who has an arm tattoo that reads, “Never give up,” a reminder of goals to accomplish in life.
Zzyym was born with ambiguous physical sexual characteristics but was raised as a boy and had several surgeries that failed to make Zzyym appear fully male, according to court filings. Zzyym served in the Navy as a male but later came to identify as intersex while working and studying at Colorado State University. The State Department’s denial of Zzyym’s passport prevented Zzyym from being able to go to two Organization Intersex International meetings.
Story by COLLEEN SLEVIN for the Associated Press. Cover photo by Nicole Geri on Unsplash.
Watch Post Commentary: We are witnessing a growing, widespread political, economic, and cultural leaning toward the concept of "wokeism," which aligns with the social justice doctrine of "equity, access, diversity, participation, and rights." On the surface that doesn't sound like a bad philosophy. The problem lies in the fact that social justice has, in many respects, become like a religion for many, taking precedence over the traditional morals and values described in the Bible.
The goal of social justice proponents is to force tolerance of all sorts of self expression (whether appropriate or not), ideologies, and behaviors. Ironically, the "warriors" in the social justice movement are not at all tolerant of those in opposition - those whose preferences align with the teachings of our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Although Christian orthodoxy does not agree with the principles of social justice and wokeism, we are not surprised by the emergence of such belief systems. We were warned ahead of time.
Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons (1 Tim 4:1).
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