India and Pakistan now provide for "other" gender on a wide range of official documents, and Australia has introduced new regulations for passports that allow "X" for intersex, and for transpeople to select the gender they identify with - not necessarily their birth gender. Now, the British authorities are reported to be considering something similar, in co-operation with "with international partners".
The road to full LGBT equality is long and arduous, and for far too long trans rights have been left at the wayside, but there are encouraging signs that in some respects at least, officialdom is starting to move in the right direction.
The road to full LGBT equality is long and arduous, and for far too long trans rights have been left at the wayside, but there are encouraging signs that in some respects at least, officialdom is starting to move in the right direction.
The Home Office is considering plans to allow transgender citizens to opt-out of identifying their sex on their passports.
Under the new proposals, passports would use a single box marked 'sex' that can be marked with an X.
The Home Office has now begun a period of consultation over the move, to assess what impact it may have on national security and the work of the UK Border Agency.
A spokeswoman for the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) confirmed that the organisation is looking at how gender needs to be reported on passports.
'We are exploring with international partners and relevant stakeholders the security implications of gender not being displayed in the passport,' she explained.
Read more at Metro
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