Recognition (USA): Difference between revisions

It is estimated that there are over 450,000 [[nonbinary]] individuals in the Unites States of America.<ref name="Hendrick">{{Cite web |title=“M,” “F,” Or “X”? Nonbinary Gender Designations In The Workplace |author=Hendrick et al. |work=Fisher Phillips |date=1 January 2018 |access-date=19 June 2020 |url= https://www.fisherphillips.com/resources-newsletters-article-m-f-or-x-nonbinary-gender-designations}}</ref> This article gives information on [[recognition]] of nonbinary gender identities in law, government, services, and businesses in the USA. This also deals with policies about [[transgender]] people in general, and related policies about [[intersex]] people. Recognition here means whether an organization acknowledges that such people exist and have valid identities, and the organization does this by routinely giving them a place where they aren't forced into being wrongly categorized as a [[gender]] that doesn't match their [[gender identity]]. In the case of recognition of nonbinary people, this means the system doesn't force them to wrongly say they are one of the [[binary gender]]s ([[female]] or [[male]]).

* purple (#f9d) means it has a mandatory selection but gives some gender-neutral options, which may even acknowledge the existence of people who are nonbinary or intersex. For a title, this means the available options include not only Dr, but [[Mx]]. For a gender, it acknowledges that there could be other genders than female or male, giving options such as "other" or "intersex". This acknowledges the existence of nonbinary people, which is good, but requires you to be either out or closeted, and can create mismatches with other paperwork, which is trouble.

* red (#f99) is mandatory selection, without gender-neutral options. For a title, the only remotely gender neutral titles it offers are things such as "Dr". For a gender, it only allows only [[female]] or [[male]]. This is the worst because it is [[nonbinary erasure]]. Activists need to let the organization know it can be more inclusive.

Note that for [[gender nonconforming]] [[children]] and teens, homeschooling or unschooling is an option. This still involves a lot of paperwork, but it's a life-saving option for youth who have difficulty with fitting in or feeling safe around peers and faculty at school. Homeschooled or drop-out teens can work to pass the General Education Development (GED) test instead of getting a high school diploma. A GED certificate will satisfy all employers and colleges that ask for a high school diploma.

In the USA, many colleges use paperwork that makes problems for transgender people, especially nonbinary people. The Common Application and Universal College Application, used by many USA colleges, used to restrict answers to only the binary sex assigned at birth of the applicant. However, starting in the 2016-2017 academic year, these applications updated the "sex" field to "sex assigned at birth" and added an optional free text field for gender.<ref name="OConnor">{{Cite web |title=College Applications Just Got Way More Gender-Inclusive |last=O'Connor |first=Lydia |work=HuffPost |date=April 28, 2016 |access-date=May 11, 2020 |url= https://www.huffpost.com/entry/common-application-gender_n_57225c03e4b01a5ebde4faf9}}</ref>

The [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iXcTiWKvTVfIYDx0ciZnZI5Bw5R_hfCdfTZKJPHpeHI/edit?pli=1 Applying to College as a Non Binary Trans Person] article is highly recommended, because it goes into more detail about many aspects of college life for a nonbinary person in the USA, and some common problems in paperwork.

| Gives a lot of transgender focused programming and events, and works to be transgender inclusive in its services.<ref name="Beemyn2012" />