Mexico Issues First Non-Binary Passport

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Facts

  • Mexico issued its first non-binary passport Wednesday in conjunction with International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia.1
  • The ceremonial passport was issued to Ociel Baena at an event hosted by Mexico’s Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, with other Foreign Ministry representatives and officials, including trans legislator Salma Luévano Luna, also present.2
  • Mexico’s new policy will allow Mexicans who don’t identify as male or female to check a third box labeled “X” when designating their sex on their passport. The foreign ministry says this eliminates the need to specify gender, which passports didn't previously require.3
  • While the progressive minister Ebrard, who is running for the leftist Morena party’s 2024 presidential nomination, exalted the passport policy as a “quantum leap,” non-binary activists have criticized the move for confusing sex and gender.4
  • Mexico joins other Latin American countries, such as Argentina and Colombia, in offering non-binary passports. Meanwhile, the US issued its first such passport in 2021 to activist Dana Zzyym, who filed a federal lawsuit in 2016, lobbying for an “X” option on US passports.5
  • More than a dozen countries issue non-binary documents, and Mexico will start issuing its new passports at its consulates and embassies in July. The US began allowing non-binary options on documents in April 2022.6

Sources: 1MSN, 2Yahoo News, 3Reuters, 4The Straits Times, 5Remezcla, and 6CBS.

Narratives

  • Left narrative, as provided by GCN. Mexico made history as it celebrated issuing the country’s first non-binary passport. Foreign Minister Ebrard is correct when he calls the event “a great leap” for freedom and dignity. Hopefully, this move will allow people of different gender and sexual identities to feel more included in Mexico, and it will also serve as a reminder that the country stands with its LGBTQ+ community and against hate.
  • Right narrative, as provided by Breitbart. In an effort to be politically correct, governments around the world are abandoning all sense of reality and jumping on board with an illusion. Everyone should be respected and protected from discrimination, but official state documents must demand clarity and truth. Though leftists are self-proclaimed advocates of science, they're quick to throw it out the window when convenient.
  • Progressive narrative, as provided by Skift. While Mexico’s new passport may be viewed as a step in the right direction for non-binary and LGBTQ+ rights, it made a fundamental error in how it portrays gender and sexual identity. There is a pervasive stigma against the LGBTQ+ community and the concept of gender identity and sex. This passport policy fails to recognize key distinctions and adds fuel to the belief that gender and sex are one and the same.