WASHINGTON – Americans who do not consider themselves male or female will soon have a new option on their passports.
President Joe Biden on Thursday is announcing new measures aimed at making the federal government more inclusive for transgender people, including a new “X” gender marker on U.S. passport applications beginning on April 11 and new Transportation Security Administration scanners that are gender-neutral.
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The official designation of the “X” marker is “unspecified or another gender identity.”
Visitors to the White House will soon also be able to select an “X” gender marker option in the White House Worker and Visitor Entry System, which is used to conduct screening background checks for visitors to the executive mansion.
“Transgender Americans continue to face discrimination, harassment, and barriers to opportunity,” Biden wrote in a proclamation marking Transgender Day of Visibility. “In the past year, hundreds of anti-transgender bills in States were proposed across America, most of them targeting transgender kids. The onslaught has continued this year. These bills are wrong.”
Biden also planned to release a video message to transgender Americans on Thursday.
“Jeopardy!” champion Amy Schneider, the first openly transgender winner on the quiz show, will visit the White House on Thursday to meet with second gentleman Doug Emhoff. Emhoff, along with Admiral Rachel Levine, the assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, will also host a conversation with transgender kids and their parents at the White House.
In Florida, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona will meet with LGBTQ+ students in the wake of the state’s new law that bars instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through the third grade. Republicans argue that parents should broach these subjects with children. Democrats have said the law demonizes LGBTQ people by excluding them from classroom lessons.
“Their conversation will focus on the impacts of Florida’s so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, students’ experiences at school and, in particular, support for LGBTQI+ student mental health and well-being,” the White House said.
Biden’s administration is working to expand the availability of the “X” gender marker to airlines and federal travel programs and will make it easier for transgender people to change their gender information in Social Security Administration records.
The option is expected to be available on other government forms in 2023.