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On Wednesday a federal judge ruled that an intersex Colorado resident cannot be denied a passport application because of a refusal to select male or female as a gender.
U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson, who made the ruling, said the U.S. State Department's reasons for rejecting the application were "arbitrary and capricious."
According to the Denver Post, Dana Zzyym was born with ambiguous physical sexual characteristics and identifies as nonbinary in gender—not as male or female. Zzyym filed a lawsuit in 2015 after requesting "X" as a gender marker on a passport application and being denied.
During that case the judge ordered the State Department to reconsider but, when 58-year-old Zzyym re-applied, he was denied for the second time.
In this clip from Fox31 Denver, Zzyym speaks about his fight to be truthful on the application:
Screenshot comment thread The Denver Posthttps://www.denverpost.com/2018/09/20/passport-den...
@LambdaLegal do we have any idea whether this is likely to lead to actual policy change/ability for us to update our passports anytime soon?— homo qui vixit ⚡️ (@homo qui vixit ⚡️)1537398582.0
@chicagotribune Congrats on the intersex @EltLearn33 @JonathanWysaski— DP Roberts (@DP Roberts)1537410578.0
The case sparked some debate among others:
Screenshot comment thread The Denver Posthttps://www.denverpost.com/2018/09/20/passport-den...
And some weren't so positive or respectful, as ignorance seemed to reign on Twitter:
@kmcabee1004 @LambdaLegal That’s actually not true. Some people are born with a combination of male and female characteristics.— Lauri (@Lauri)1537466399.0
@KDVR Male or female. Pick one. https://t.co/YcpzwvcTpW— EVIE (@EVIE)1537461543.0
@KDVR We are watching the fall of the Roman Empire all over again.— Todd Mitchem (@Todd Mitchem)1537460501.0
@KDVR Fine. Run a blood test. That will show male or female.— Proud&Unaffiliated (@Proud&Unaffiliated)1537461462.0
In a statement released by the LGBT civil rights organization, Zzyym said:
I'm not going to lie on my passport application, I shouldn't have to, and the judge here, twice, has agreed with me.
Though it is legal for the State Department to reject passport applications if they have a good reason to do so, Jackson didn't think this was one of them.
He said:
. . . adherence to a series of internal policies that do not contemplate the existence of intersex people is not good reason.
Advocates for gender equality hope this limited ruling (it applies only to Zzyym) will pave the way for a more extensive and inclusive list of options for gender categorization on federal identification.
In a written statement, the State Department said it is reviewing the decision and determining how to move forward in tandem with the Department of Justice.
H/T: The Denver Post, Twitter