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Intersex Activist Sues Federal Government For Right To Choose Third Gender Option On Passport

Navy veteran Dana Zzyym says checking "M" or "F" on a passport would be a lie.

Yesterday, on Intersex Awareness Day, Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit against the federal government, demanding the right of intersex citizens to choose a third option besides "male" and "female" on passports.

Such an option is already available in Australia, New Zealand and India.

The plaintiff in the case, Navy veteran Dana Zzyym (pronounced "Zimm") was denied a passport for refusing to check either "M" or "F" on their application.

“I defended the rights of this country," says Zzyym, who uses the pronouns “they,” “them,” and “their." "I should be able to use a few of them.”

Lambda Legal's Paul D. Castillo says Zzymm is caught in a Catch 22. “It is against the law to ‘willfully and knowingly’ make a false statement on a passport application... [Yet] the application itself and State Department ‘policy’ make it impossible for a person who is inherently neither male or female to list their gender."

He says Zzymm is being denied their right to exit and return to the U.S. because of inherent characteristics, "and that’s discrimination, pure and simple.”

A statement from Lambda Legal disclosed that Zzyym was born with ambiguous sex characteristics and was made to undergo “several irreversible, painful and medically unnecessary surgeries" as a child. Surgeries that lefts scars both physical and emotional.

Zzyym was raised as a boy, but after six years in Navy, learned they were born intersex and began making connections in the community.

“When I was a child, I had no say in what was done to me in order to make me ’fit’ in some acceptable category," said Zzyym.

"I continue to suffer the consequences of those decisions today. But, as an adult, I can take a stand. 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," said Zzyym.

h/t: MTV

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