Australia has already done it. An MP has called for the UK to follow suit
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35214487
Need to do it for Driving Licenses and N.I. Numbers as well.
Plea for the UK to 'degender' passports
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Comments
Why?
If you are in the process of transitioning, the UK passport agency are very good in altering a passport. Driving licences have the gender built into the driver number, but again will change the name etc quite happily. Like it or not, gender is part of our identity, even if that person feels they are no gender. I fought long and hard to get an F on my passport, driving licence and birth certificate and I'm happy to keep it there.
I'm sorry but I'm quite happy with the binary system.
Angharad
F on LIcense
I'm just fine with a "F" or a "M" on a license as long as "T", "Q", "G" and "L" are also options . . . and everyone makes their own determination what letters should be on their I.D.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Gimme a passport to take an
traveling trans is such a big strain
dysphoric days are here
I'm feelin' awf'ly queer since
DMV checked off the wrong letter....
Love, Andrea Lena
Licence codes
It's not that simple on a UK driver's licence.
"M" and "F" (nor anything else) does not appear on a UK driver's licence.
The actual licence number is generated differently according to the gender of the driver. It uses the date of birth and the numbers are shuffled differently according to gender, but in such a way that if you are stopped on the road, a policeman can always determine what you are.
To make a driver's licence gender-neutral, they would have to design a third encoding method which is compatible with but distinguishable from the other methods. To complicate matters, you would also still have to be able to accept numbers issued before this change took place.
Penny
I don't think I like the
I don't think I like the trend, personally. It smacks too much of trying to make everyone fit the same pigeon hole, or 'everyone equal' by handicapping some. I could see adding an 'other' for people of indeterminate gender (for those people with the really messed up genetics, or those who transition who didn't want to go all the way), but not 'none'.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
I'm still not sure one way of the other
But some posts here have really highlighted the problems that some of us have had getting essential documents changed to fit the gender we want to live as rather than the one we were born with.
Some of the hoops people have to go to (mainly due to dumb laws) are considerable.
If the documents were gender neutral to begin with then this would be a non issue.
Just my worthless 2p on the subject.
Totally Agree with Angharad
Like her I found the UK passport agency very good in changing the gender on my passport also I had no problems with my driving licence
and any other governmental documentation in the UK I simply cannot understand the need for this step.
The biggest problem I had was changing my qualifications to my new name and gender especially with the university where I gained my doctorate this took nearly 5 years for the change.
Christina
A plea NOT to 'degender' passports
Might I point out four reasons why Maria Miller's proposal is both foolish and unhelpful?
The current process in the UK to change the gender on your passport or driving licence does not require you to have undergone surgery. All that is needed is a letter from your doctor or therapist stating that you are transitioning and are unlikely to change back. Given that you will probably be changing your name and photo anyway it is no significant additional burden.
When overseas in certain countries having a legal document that states your gender can be immensely helpful. Given some of the rather rabid proposals for 'bathroom laws' in certain US states one can see the potential value.
Forcing this through would alienate otherwise normal people who don't like change and don't like being told how to think. Well over 99% of people in my experience are quite prepared to 'live and let live'. There is no need to put their backs up with yet another example of coerced political correctness 'groupthink'.
Maria Miller has had an 'interesting' political career to date. One has to ask what political capital is in it for her in making this very public suggestion.
Persephone
Non sum qualis eram
Prison and marriage abroad
Travellers to far places face the possibility of prison or marriage in countries that insist on the traditional one male + one female for marriage. I presume that as things stand a passport would be the natural confirmation of gender and a gender neutral passport could at worse put someone in the wrong prison.
Rhona McCloud
Torn.
I have always been sort of torn on the issue of IDs and gender.
On the one hand there is all the social baggage and the Need for IDs to fit a persons "Self Identity". On the other hand these documents are supposed to be "Identification" for various official and technical uses. If they are lacking certain information or the information is inaccurate in a technical or scientific way they may be less then useful in some cases. But back again on to the first hand with a spin of the second thrown. If a person presents one way and the "identity documents" indicate another this will also cause problems and mis-identification in some cases.
I just wish people would live and let live, and stop the hate.
~Hypatia >i< ..:::