A column in The Washington Post has called for the removal of gender on U.S. passports in the name of being inclusionary of transgender people.
Writer Abeni Jones wrote in a Sunday column that gender on passports has made it more difficult for transgender people to travel and that they are more prone to being pulled over for additional screening at airports.
The State Department and the Biden administration announced last year that passport holders will have the option of marking their gender as “X” in an effort to “advance inclusion,” but Jones wrote that the move would “invite danger” for transgender people by opening them up to “extra scrutiny” and “persecution.”
“If the State Department really wanted to take a step forward, there’s an easier, cheaper and more powerful option: remove gender from passports altogether,” Jones said.
“Is there a legitimate reason anyone other than my doctor needs to know my gender? Does my dentist need to know? My credit-card issuer? The library? The veterinary clinic? The airline or TSA?” Jones asked.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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8 Responses
חס ושלום to remove one’s gender from passport.
Such a repulsive repugnant תועבה on the part of the repulsive repugnant democrats
Remove the passport from the gender.
Disgusting
Oy, Rachmana l’zlan!
Please.join me in wishing Abeni Jones a refuah sheleima. Amenities has no clue of what’s involved in Security. He apparently has lost his Seychel.
The gender of the writer of that Post article is not identified here. The writer is a biological male who unfortunately suffers from Gender Dysphoria.
In publishing this, the Post seems to have hit a new low, as has, therefore, this country.
The writer wrote ““Is there a legitimate reason anyone other than my doctor needs to know my gender? Does my dentist need to know? My credit-card issuer? The library? The veterinary clinic? The airline or TSA?” Jones asked.”
If the question is why it would matter to those entities above regarding the individual’s biological gender then, yes, the TSA, for example, given how intrusive it is, would need to know that.
However, even if “gender identity” were the subject of the question, then if the writer wishes that the TSA go with that “gender identity”, like when doing a secondary screening or the like, then that “gender identity” would, indeed be relevant to the TSA.
So, either way, yes, the individual would indeed benefit if certain entities other than a doctor (like the TSA, as mentioned) were to know (as they currently do) the gender of the individual.
Why is gender important on a passport, financial aid, tax return or any other record other than birth, marriage and a few others like school and prison?
That the WP gave such a person a platform shouldn’t bother anyone. Let people have ability to say what they want – point of allowing outside opinion writers in newspapers is partly to give voice to individuals who may actually be representative of several others and bring their views to light. WP isn’t condoning it just by publishing it – just like YWN isn’t agreeing with this comment just by letting me post it. If you don’t like it don’t buy their paper or write your own opinion piece and send it in.
Gender is important on passports because it is one of many things that can be used to identify a person and ensure that the passport belongs to the person presenting it. The writer of the column seems to ignore the fact that for the vast majority of people, their gender can be easily discerned by anyone looking at them, and for those whose gender is not so readily apparent, their unusual appearance is going to draw a lot more unwanted attention than anything written on their passport.