Thaindian News

London, Sep 19 (IANS) Britain plans to introduce passports that do not contain details of the holder’s sex. The move is designed to spare transgender people and those who have both male and female sexual organs, a media report said Monday.

Currently, everybody must identify themselves as either man or woman, even when they are undergoing a sex-change operation or if they are considered “intersex”, Daily Mail reported.

The Home Office has already begun a consultation on changing the rules, it said.

To satisfy international laws, the passport would still list a category titled “sex”, but would then contain a simple “X” for everybody.

Supporters say it will solve the problem of embarrassing situations at border controls, where people whose sex appears to differ from that in their passport are grilled for long periods by guards.

Under existing rules, a “transgender” person undergoing a sex-swap is free to change their identity to a new sex, once the procedure is complete and a gender recognition certificate has been issued, according to the newspaper.

But people who are classed as intersex - a condition which people carry from birth, where they have male and female reproductive organs - are forced to make a choice, the Mail said.