Petition to recognize non-binary genders.

[randome]

One of my daughters is very much into gender rights. She asked that I post this on DU.

It's a petition to allow the same consideration on passports and other official documents as Australia, New Zealand and the UK currently allow -namely the option to select 'X' or 'Mx' instead of simply 'M' for Male and 'F' for Female.

Here is the text of the petition:

Legal documents in the United States only recognize "male" and "female" as genders, leaving anyone who does not identify as one of these two genders with no option. Australia and New Zealand both allow an X in place of an M or an F on passports for this purpose, and the UK recognizes 'Mx' (pronounced "Mix&quot as a gender-neutral title.

This petition asks the Obama administration to legally recognize genders outside of the male-female binary, and provide an option for these genders on all legal documents and records.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/recognize-non-binary-genders/80HYg71P

April 2nd is the deadline.

Sign! Sign!

[jberryhill]

1. What are the consequences one way or the other?

[randome]

3. I think the purpose is to give public recognition to those with non-specific or mixed genders.

Public recognition is probably the most important first step to being more inclusive overall.

[tularetom]

2. Why not just drop the gender designation altogether?

I can see this turning into a can of worms with multiple genders clamoring for individual designations.

If the idea of selecting a gender from a pre approved list is confusing or offensive to somebody, wouldn't it be better to just eliminate "gender" as a box to check on a document?

[MineralMan]

4. +10

The perfect solution.

[eShirl]

5. that would be awesome

[randome]

6. I would think it's still important in some cases.

Simply so governments have an idea who is coming and going for security, health and census purposes.

And some people are truly torn about having to choose 'M' or 'F' when they don't consider themselves either, or they DO consider themselves both. It's a public consideration thing.

No one's proposing an endless list, as far as I know.

[randome]

7. I added the text of the petition to my post.

'Legal recognition' is the primary goal.

[ismnotwasm]

8. No problem

There are a lot of people who need this

[Cooley Hurd]

9. Done. Happily.

[Zephie]

10. Signed and shared.

[randome]

11. Australia and the U.K. are currently considering dropping the gender distinction entirely.

But I think it's an important first step to get America to at least recognize non-binary designations or else we may not follow their lead.

[randome]

12. It's also about self-identification.

Someone may physically be male but identify themselves as female. Or vice-versa.

So it's a politeness thing but also about forcing recognition of non-standard gender identification.

[ThoughtCriminal]

13. There are 10 kinds of people

those who understand binary math, and those who don't.

[randome]

14. Yeah, this probably isn't something most people can see for themselves.

I confess I wouldn't, either, if my daughter wasn't conveying the complexities of it to me.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

15. Funny how a corporation can be a person but a person can't.

[baldguy]

16. +1000

[Rhiannon12866]

17. Signed and Tweeted, for your daughter!

Great kid you've got there!

[Spider Jerusalem]

18. Well...

Gender is largely a socially-constructed identity that's to some extent separate from biological sex; in the case of persons born intersexed due to some chromosomal abnormality or hormone insensitivity there's a strong cultural bias to place them in one of the binary genders (and in the case of people with gender dysphoria then the social identification of them as belonging to what they perceive as the "wrong" gender can be a source of significant psychological distress). So, something like this is a good thing, in terms of social recognition.

[Fumesucker]

19. In the case two non-binary gendered individuals arrive at a door at the same time...

Which one holds the door for the other?