Colombia to issue passports with gender “X” for non-binary people

Colombia is issuing a passport with the “X” option in the gender box from Thursday, for people who identify as non-binary, the South American country’s foreign ministry said.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs recognizes gender diversity with the option of recording ‘non-binary’ gender in the passport. This will be identified in passports with an ‘X’,” says Andrea Garzon, an official in the gender department. passports, in a video posted on the ministry’s official website.

“From now on, Colombians can exercise this right in the administrations issuing passports in Bogotá, in the departments and consulates abroad,” specifies Ms. Garzon.

With this latest change to its passports, Colombia, which has a population of some 50 million, joins the dozen countries that offer this possibility, according to Human Rights Watch, including Australia (since 2011), Pakistan, Nepal, New Zealand, Germany, Argentina, the United States, Canada and, more recently, Mexico.