Intersex

A U.S. District Court Judge today ruled that the U.S. State Department exceeded its authority under the Passport Act of 1926 when it denied a passport to Lambda Legal client Dana Zzyym, a U.S. Navy veteran who is intersex and non-binary, and does not identify as male or female.

Lambda Legal returned to federal district court today to argue once again on behalf of U.S. citizen and Navy veteran Dana Zzyym, an intersex person whose gender identity is neither male nor female to whom the U.S. State Department refuses to issue an accurate passport.

A federal district court in Denver today granted Lambda Legal’s motion to reopen the case of Dana Zzyym, the intersex citizen and U.S. Navy veteran denied a passport because the U.S. State Department continues to refuse to recognize a gender marker that is neither “M” (male) nor “F” (female).

Twenty years ago today, intersex activists took to the streets of Boston and demonstrated outside a conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics. It was the first public demonstration by intersex people in North America — an event commemorated yearly as Intersex Awareness Day.