{"id":79894,"date":"2019-05-15T10:56:11","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T17:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.46.6.243\/?p=79894"},"modified":"2019-05-15T10:56:11","modified_gmt":"2019-05-15T17:56:11","slug":"attorney-general-becerra-leads-coalition-in-brief-defending-rights-of-gender-non-binary-individuals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=79894","title":{"rendered":"Attorney General Becerra Leads Coalition in Brief Defending Rights of Gender Non-Binary Individuals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sacramento, CA…California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, and Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum today led a coalition of attorneys general in an amicus brief in\u00a0Zzyym\u00a0v. Pompeo\u00a0<\/em>to defend the rights of gender non-binary individuals. Under current federal policy, individuals who are neither male nor female (non-binary individuals) are under threat that their U.S. passport applications will be denied. In the brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, the Attorneys General assert that individuals deserve full legal recognition of their accurate gender identity on passports provided by the U.S. Department of State (Department).<\/p>\n

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\u201cDiscrimination based on gender identity has no place in the 21st century,\u201d\u00a0said Attorney General Becerra.\u201cDespite being able to coordinate more than 43,000 flights a day, our federal government says that it can\u2019t update one section of your passport to accurately reflect a person\u2019s gender. This is 2019, not 1920. Let\u2019s do our part to make all Americans feel welcome in their own country, and maintain their ability to travel internationally regardless of their gender identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cColoradans use state-issued identification documents every day to interact with government agencies, law enforcement, and businesses. Providing non-binary identification documents in our state is easy to manage, respects our citizens\u2019 gender identity, and is the right thing to do,\u201d\u00a0said Colorado Attorney General Weiser.\u00a0\u201cThe federal government needs to catch up with the states that are leading the way when it comes to equality. All Americans should be able to obtain a passport that accurately reflects their gender.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOregon\u2014like other states\u2014recognizes non-binary gender designations on driver\u2019s licenses and birth certificates. The thousands of Oregonians who now have these identification cards are entitled to have passports that match their state IDs,\u201d\u00a0said Oregon Attorney General Rosenblum.\u00a0\u201cThis case is no more complicated than that it is important that all identification documents accurately reflects an individual\u2019s gender, whether it is male, female, or non-binary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zzyym\u00a0v. Pompeo\u00a0<\/em>centers around an individual who, in accordance with their gender identity, requested a passport with an \u201cX\u201d as the marker for the sex field of their passport instead of an \u201cM\u201d for male or an \u201cF\u201d for female.\u00a0Zzyym\u00a0is both intersex (ambiguous sex characteristics) and non-binary (self-identifies as neither male nor female).\u00a0Despite providing the Department with documentation of their intersex status, the Department told\u00a0Zzyym\u00a0to choose either the male or female designation and subsequently rejected\u00a0Zzyym\u2019s\u00a0application for failing to complete the sex field accordingly. The denial in the\u00a0Zzyym<\/em>\u00a0case was solely due to the applicant\u2019s non-binary gender \u2014 a sex designation that has been legally recognized in multiple jurisdictions across the U.S. and globally. The \u201cX\u201d designation conforms to the standard for individuals with an unspecified gender set by the International Civil Aviation Organization, a specialized agency within the United Nations that, among other things, establishes norms for passport specifications.<\/p>\n

In September 2018, the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado found that the Department\u2019s gender policy was arbitrary and capricious and that the passport application denial was in excess of the Department\u2019s statutory authority. The federal government appealed the decision and it is now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. California is uniquely situated to weigh in on this issue since the state has systems in place in areas such as law enforcement that are inclusive of gender non-binary individuals. Most recently, the state began allowing individuals to use an \u201cX\u201d in applying for an official state license on January 1, 2019.<\/p>\n

Recognizing that discrimination has no place in our society, the California Department of Justice is committed to protecting the rights of members of the LGBTQ community. On behalf of the State of California, Attorney General Becerra is a\u00a0co-plaintiff in\u00a0Stockman v. Trump<\/em><\/a>, a case seeking to defend the rights of transgender individuals seeking to join, or currently serving in, the U.S. military. Attorney General Becerra has also fought against discriminatory actions by the federal government threatening safe and equitable access to\u00a0healthcare<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0education<\/a>\u00a0<\/wbr>for members of the LGBTQ community. Additionally, in accordance with California law, the California Department of Justice\u00a0develops and maintains a list of states that are subject to state-sponsored travel restrictions<\/a>\u00a0because of laws that authorize or require discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.<\/p>\n

Joining Attorney General Becerra in filing the brief are the Attorneys General of Colorado and Oregon, as well as Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Vermont, and Washington.<\/p>\n

A copy of the brief filed in\u00a0Zzyym\u00a0v. Pompeo\u00a0<\/em>is available\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

# # #<\/p>\n

You may view the full account of this posting, including possible attachments, in the News & Alerts section of our website at:\u00a0https:\/\/oag.ca.gov\/news\/press-<\/wbr>releases\/attorney-general-<\/wbr>becerra-leads-coalition-brief-<\/wbr>defending-rights-gender-non<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sacramento, CA…California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, and Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum today led a coalition of attorneys general in an amicus brief in\u00a0Zzyym\u00a0v. Pompeo\u00a0to defend the rights of gender non-binary individuals. Under current federal policy, individuals who are neither male nor female (non-binary individuals) are under threat that their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Xavier_Becerra_official_portrait_as_attorney_general_of_California.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}