The federal government wants to introduce personal identification with more options than just male or female — possibly adding a third option, for gender-neutral.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Toronto news station CP24 on Sunday that the government is considering following in Ontario’s footsteps with gender-neutral identification. Ontario announced last week that it would allow the use of a third gender indicator, “X”, for driver’s licences and health cards.
READ MORE: Ontario introducing gender-neutral driver’s licences, health cards
“It’s something we’re looking at federally, we’re just trying to figure out the best way to get around to doing it,” he said.
Cameron Ahmad, press secretary for the PMO, confirmed to Global News that the government is considering this change as part of Bill C-16, which would add gender identity to the human rights code.
“With regard to Bill C-16, we are conducting a review of all the circumstances in which the government requires or produces identity documents to ensure we do not to exclude people whose gender identity does not match the binary standard,” he wrote. “This could include neutrality in several situations.”
Some countries, like Australia, Denmark and Bangladesh, already allow people to state their gender as “X” or “Other” on official government identification.
With files from the Canadian Press