Gender recognition



Recognition of non-binary gender identities in law and other paperwork is an important issue confronting modern society. 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 genders (female or male). Through networking and activism, people can find out which organisations acknowledge non-binary genders, and can ask for acknowledgement from organisations that still need to do so.

For international recognition on the Internet, see websites and social networks.

Recognition worldwide
One international problem is that all passports and other identity documents list gender (they are usually called "sex"), and most countries require that gender to be either female or male. A few countries allow passports to have a nonbinary gender marker, called X (unspecified or X-gender), T (transgender or third gender), E (eunuch), I (intersex) or O (other), depending on the country. Having a nonbinary marker on one's passport can make it impossible to travel to a country whose passports don't give that option.

Another global problem for transgender rights is that many countries require too much of a transgender person in order to allow them to have a legal transition. Many countries require proof of surgery in order to do this. Many countries even require transgender people to go through bottom surgeries that would effectively sterilize them in order to transition. International law calls compulsory sterilization a crime against humanity, but it is still the law in many countries.

In the table below, countries are listed in alphabetical order. To make them easier to skim, they use a colour code based on traffic lights:


 * Blue (#9FF) means it's friendly to nonbinary people. This can mean it allows unspecified gender options.
 * Yellow (#FFB) means it's somewhat friendly to nonbinary people. This can mean it plans to become friendly to nonbinary people. Or it can mean the country is divided on giving nonbinary people their rights, but leaning toward acceptance.
 * Red (#F99) means it's not friendly at all to nonbinary people.
 * White or blank background means we don't have information about this yet, or it's difficult to call whether it's more good or bad for nonbinary people.