Starting on April 11, U.S. citizens will be able to select “X” as their gender on passport applications. The “X” will reflect that the individual has an “unspecified or another gender identity.”
This is the continuation of a trend, seen in states such as New York, in which government identification, including birth certificates and driver’s licenses, offers a gender-neutral designation. These policies are likely well-meaning on the part of the organizations that are implementing them. In the context of traveling, transgender people can experience insensitive questioning and invasive security screenings if their bodies differ from what would be considered typical for the purposes of risk assessment.
Nonbinary people, however, identify as a third gender and usually go by “they/them” or another variation of pronouns that are not exclusively male or female. There is no legitimate scientific research supporting the existence of nonbinary genders. Intersex people, who possess anatomy that is a combination of female and male, are frequently tokenized by activists as proof that gender is a spectrum, when most intersex people in fact prefer living as a binary sex.
We can be sensitive to issues pertaining to gender while remaining skeptical of the larger political agenda associated with this type of activism. In this case, nonbinary individuals have capitalized on legitimate concerns of discrimination voiced by the transgender community, to usher in a new set of rules that are senseless and unnecessary. Unlike transgender people (who transition to live as the opposite sex), people identifying as “nonbinary” will dye their hair a bright color and wear opposite-sex clothing and then say this means they are an oppressed minority.
In truth, identifying as a third gender usually means that someone wants to be recognized as “special” and that they have extreme-left politics that favor the tearing down of Western society. Because nonbinary activists help to enforce the larger goals of gender ideology, transgender activists have been happy to include them in their movement.
Imagine wielding the power to shift policy and law in such radical ways while operating without any evidence. As gender-neutral markers continue spreading throughout the world, they are a reminder of how the whims of a noisy and vindictive minority are redefining reality for everyone else.
Dr. Debra Soh is a sex neuroscientist, the host of The Dr. Debra Soh Podcast, and the author of The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths About Sex and Identity in Our Society.
*story by The Washington Examiner
