Passport rule change debated as gender becomes less defined

DENVER (AP) — A Navy veteran from Colorado who does not identify as male or female is pushing the U.S. government to allow for a third gender option or get rid of gender designators altogether on passports, highlighting the argument that forms on the state and federal level have been slow to include other identities even as gender becomes less defined.

A handful of countries, including Australia and New Zealand, allow people to put an X'' for their gender on passports and they are allowed to travel into the United States with them.

Since 2010, the State Department has allowed transgender people to change the gender designation on their passport from male to female or vice versa with a doctor's certification but has stopped short of providing other gender options.

The Colorado case comes amid controversy over North Carolina's law requiring transgender people to use restrooms in many public buildings that are consistent with the sex on their birth certificate — and as several conservative-led states are suing President Barack Obama's administration over its directive to public schools to let transgender students use bathrooms that match their gender identity.