Canadian Baby Becomes World's First Person to Have Gender Marked as 'Unknown'
One Canadian baby is possibly the first child in the world to have their gender marked as [...]
One Canadian baby is possibly the first child in the world to have their gender marked as "unknown" on their health card.
Searyl Atli's gender has been marked with a "u" on their health card, standing for "unassigned" or "unknown."
Searyl's parent, Kori Doty, who is non-binary transgender, doesn't identify as male or female and prefers the pronoun "they." Doty wants to raise Searyl genderless until the 8-month-old has a "sense of self and command of vocabulary to tell me who they are".
I'm recognizing them as a baby and trying to give them all the love and support to be the most whole person that they can be outside of the restrictions that come with the boy box and the girl box," Doty told CBC News.
While British Columbia did issue the "u" on Searyl's health card, the province refused Doty's request to have Seryl's birth certificate issued without a gender. Some provinces like Ontario and Alberta are currently reviewing their policies to allow for a third non-binary gender option, but Doty argues that documents shouldn't include any gender option at all.
Doty, who is a member of the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal, argues that the omission of gender on government documents should apply for everyone in British Columbia and Canada.
They believe that people who want to change their gender later in life have to go through a difficult government process, and instead wants a third option from birth.
They added: "When I was born, doctors looked at my genitals and made assumptions about who I would be, and those assignments followed me and followed my identification throughout my life.
"Those assumptions were incorrect, and I ended up having to do a lot of adjustments since then."
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