Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The author received her passport the day after Donald Trump nominated David Laufman to be a U.S. diplomat in New York
A transgender, North Carolina-born New Yorker has become the first American to receive a passport that features a “non-binary” mark, similar to a “M” or “F”.
Olivia Transylvania, whose birth name is also Olivia, said she had waited a long time for the passport.
The decision to formally recognise her was made in July, but only went on sale in September.
Thousands of Britons are likely to have already received their passports with the gender marker “X”.
“I had to go in and check,” Ms Transylvania said when she received her passport on Monday.
“I was actually happy, just ecstatic, happy to finally have something official.”
Ms Transylvania, 29, posted a picture of the passport on social media on Tuesday, and said she received hundreds of replies about it.
The “X” is a marker placed on the passport’s lower left corner. It means the document recognises a person’s gender as neither male nor female.
Image copyright Olivia Transylvania
The US Department of State clarified the directive to tell people it had “never” required the passport to reflect the sex they were born with.
“US Passport Agencies are issuing specially-issued non-binary passports through a limited process which does not apply to other passport holders,” they said.
Since June 2017, American citizens who say they do not identify as male or female but do not identify as a third gender have been able to have their passport verified as a “third gender”.
In June, the Obama administration took the record as the first to allow transgender people to change their official birth certificate to reflect their gender identity.
It was followed by Brazil and India. This has been linked to health concerns, with there being a higher infection rate of HIV and AIDS among transgender people.
