You Might Like
Intersex Veteran Denied Passport For Refusing to Choose Gender, Files Lawsuit
An intersex person from Colorado who identifies as neither male nor female is suing the U.S. State Department after being denied a passport after they refused to select a gender on the application.
Dana Zzyym, a U.S. Navy veteran, claims the application violates the Constitution, Reuters reported Monday. Zzyym confirmed with The Advocate that they prefer the gender-neutral pronouns they, them, and their to refer to themselves.
Zzyym filed a federal discrimination lawsuit in Denver this week, stating it was a constitutional violation to force an intersex person to select a gender in order to travel abroad. At the time, they were trying to travel to Mexico City for the International Intersex Forum, according to Reuters.
“I am not male, I am not female, I am intersex, and I shouldn’t have to choose a gender marker for my official U.S. identity document that isn’t me,” Zzyym said in a statement obtained by Reuters.
Countries such as Malta, India, Nepal, Australia, and New Zealand provide a third gender option on passports, and some nations are considering making a similar change, Kyle Knight wrote in The Advocate this week.
Zzyym’s complaint said that at birth in 1958, they had “ambiguous external sex characteristics,” and the gender box on their birth certificate was initially left blank, the wire service reported.
They were raised as a boy. “Similar to many other intersex children, by age five, Dana had been subjected to several irreversible, invasive, painful, and medically unnecessary surgeries designed to make Dana’s body conform to binary sex stereotypes,” the complaint said, according to Reuters.
Zzyym joined the U.S. Navy in 1978 and served as a machinist mate during several tours of duty, but left in 1984 and decided to explore their gender identity.
After living as a woman, which didn’t feel right, they adopted the name Dana Zzyym and determined gender identification was “arbitrary,” the suit reportedly said.
Zzyym’s lawyer, Paul Castillo of Lambda Legal, told Reuters his client isn’t seeking compensation, but merely to force a change in U.S. policy.
“Dana is being deprived of the right to lawfully exit the United States because of personal characteristics, and that’s discrimination, pure and simple,” Castillo told Reuters.
Elizabeth Daley
You Might Like
