A baby in Canada has been given the world’s first genderless identification card.
The tot, named Searyl Atli Doty, who was born in November last year, has been given a healthcare card that does not specify them as either male or female, according to CBC.
Searyl’s parent Kori Doty spoke about wanting to let their child find their own gender.
They said in a statement: “When I was born, doctors looked at my genitals and made assumptions about who I would be, and those assignments followed me and my identification throughout my life.
“Those assumptions were incorrect, and I ended up having to do a lot of adjustments since then.
“I’m raising Searyl in such a way that until they have the sense of self and command of vocabulary to tell me who they are, I’m recognising 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 boy and the girl box.”
Searyl was born at home and therefore was not officially assigned a sex at the time by doctors and the Canadian province of Slocan Valley has now given them a healthcare card which states “undetermined/unassigned” rather than a gender.
Parent Kori, who is a member of the Gender-Free ID Coalition which wants the removal of “all gender/sex designations from identity documents”, added: “It is up to Searyl to decide how they identify, when they are old enough to develop their own gender identity.”
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