Dana Zzyym of Fort Collins, Colorado, became the first
person in the US to get a passport with an X gender marker. Zzyym, who prefers a
gender-neutral pronoun, has been in a legal battle with the government since
2015 over a passport.

The State Department did not reveal the identity of the
person but their identity was reported by the Associated Press.

Zzyym is an intersex activist and former sailor who was the
first military veteran in the United States to seek a non-binary gender US passport,
in the lawsuit Zzyym v Pompeo.

Zzyym said the fight for the passport with an accurate
gender designation was a way to help the next generation of intersex people win
recognition as full citizens with rights.

“I’m not a problem. I’m a human being. That’s the point,” Zzyym
told the Associated Press.

Zzyym was denied a passport for failing to check male or
female on an application. According to court documents, Zzyym wrote “intersex”
above the boxes marked “M” and “F” and requested an “X” gender marker instead
in a separate letter.

Zzyym was born with ambiguous physical sexual
characteristics but was raised as a boy and had several surgeries that failed
to make Zzyym appear fully male, according to court filings. Zzyym served in
the Navy as a male but later came to identify as intersex while working and
studying at Colorado State University. The State Department’s denial of Zzyym’s
passport prevented Zzyym from being able to travel to a meeting of Organization
Intersex International in Mexico.

Zzyym said they would like a chance to travel to another advocacy conference once they resume after the pandemic or perhaps go sea fishing in Costa Rica.

“But being on a fixed income, a road trip to Canada for fishing might be more feasible,” Zzyym added, according to the Associated Press.