Boston City Councilors Michelle Wu and Liz Breadon are backing a proposal for the city to adopt a nonbinary gender designation for all of its forms, documents and certificates, and they planned to bring the matter up for discussion at the Nov. 18 council’s meeting, according to The Boston Globe.
“We work a lot on the big picture legislation and programs that are pushed out for equity and inclusion and it’s also important that every interaction that people have with city hall reflects that,” Wu told the Globe.
According to the Globe:
[The] proposal states that “social science research has established that the use of gender-inclusive pronouns reduces bias and promotes healthy, positive societal views.”
The city, according to the proposal, has an obligation to ensure that language used on city forms “does not discriminate by sex, social gender or gender and does not perpetuate gender stereotypes but rather reflects the diversity of all our residents.” …
The city initiative comes after state authorities last year started allowing Massachusetts residents to choose a non-binary gender designation on state driver’s licenses.
The state’s Registry of Motor Vehicles now recognizes three gender designation options: “male,” “female,” and “non-binary.” Those options are available for new credentials, renewals, and amendments of licenses and IDs. When Massachusetts made the change, it joined a group of more than a dozen states that allow a third, gender-neutral option on driver’s licenses.
Tre’Andre Valentine, the executive director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, said the proposal was important.
“The city is acknowledging that non-binary people exist and that they’re being included,” said Valentine. “We’ve not really had that before.”
Valentine wanted state authorities to pass similar legislation that would require non-binary options on other documents, like birth certificates and school IDs. Without such options, non-binary people are running to problems because some of their documents have mismatched information, which Valentine said could be “anxiety-inducing.”
“There’s definitely progress here to see they’re thinking of this,” said Valentine of the Boston proposal during a Monday phone interview.
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