Dana Alix Zzyym (born 1958) is an
intersex
Intersex people are individuals born with any of several sex characteristics including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical bina ...
activist and veteran of the U.S. Navy.
After the culmination of a six-year legal battle, they became the first U.S. citizen to receive an official U.S. passport with an “X” sex/gender marker.
Early life
Zzyym was born in 1958. Zzyym has expressed that their childhood as a
military brat
A military brat ( colloquial or military slang) is a child of serving or retired military personnel. Military brats are associated with a unique subcultureDavid C. Pollock, Ruth E. van Reken. ''Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds'', Rev ...
made it out of the question for them to be associated with the
queer community
The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a common culture and soci ...
as a youth due to the prevalence of homophobia in the armed forces. Their parents hid Zzyym's status as intersex from them and Zzyym discovered their identity and the surgeries their parents had approved for them by themselves after their Navy service. In 1978, Zzyym joined the Navy as a
machinist's mate.
Activism
Zzyym is the associate director of the
Intersex Campaign for Equality
The Intersex Campaign for Equality (IC4E) is a NGO, non-governmental organization that advocates for the intersex human rights, human rights of intersex people. It was formerly the US affiliate of Organisation Intersex International.
History and s ...
. They are
nonbinary
Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typicall ...
and intersex.
Legal case
Zzyym is the first veteran to seek a non-binary gender U.S. passport, in the lawsuit ''Zzyym v. Blinken'' (formerly ''Zzyym v. Pompeo'', ''Zzyym v. Tillerson'', and ''Zzyym v. Kerry''). In light of the State Department's continuing refusal to recognize an appropriate gender marker, on June 27, 2017, a federal court granted Lambda Legal's motion to reopen the case. On September 19, 2018, the
United States District Court for the District of Colorado
The United States District Court for the District of Colorado (in case citations, D. Colo. or D. Col.) is a federal court in the Tenth Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are a ...
enjoined the
U.S. Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...
from relying upon its binary-only gender marker policy to withhold the requested passport. In February 2021, the state department stated "To fully integrate the change into its software systems would take approximately 24 months and cost $11 million".
In October 2021, they became the first U.S. citizen to receive an official U.S. passport with an "X" sex/gender marker.
See also
*
Intersex people and military service
Military service of intersex people varies greatly by country. Some armed forces such as the Australian fully embrace intersex people in modern-day while others have vague rules or policies or treat the subject on a case by case basis, such as ...
*
Intersex people and military service in the United States
*
Elisa Rae Shupe
Elisa Rae Shupe (formerly Jamie Shupe; born James Clifford Shupe) is a retired United States Army soldier who in 2016 became the first person in the United States to obtain legal recognition of a non-binary gender. In 2019, she released a stateme ...
References
Further reading
U.S. Passports Can't Be Denied Over Refusal to Select a Gender, a Judge Has Ruled ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zzymm, Dana
1958 births
Living people
American LGBT military personnel
Intersex rights activists
Intersex military personnel
Intersex non-binary people
Intersex people and military service in the United States
Intersex rights in the United States
United States Navy sailors
Non-binary activists
21st-century LGBT people