Why the Australian passport category 'X' may not mark the spot

[Natasha]

Why the Australian passport category 'X' may not mark the spot

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/16/australian-passport-x-intersex
9/16/11
Jane Fae

New rules in Australia in respect of transgender recognition and the acknowledgment – the first ever by any government – that intersex individuals can now opt for "X" on their passports may look like minor bureaucratic tidying. Longer term, however, the consequences for gender identity and identification are likely to be worldwide and seismic.

What has changed?

In future, a letter from a medical practitioner certifying that a person has had, or is receiving, appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition will suffice for them to obtain a passport in that gender: "M" or "F". Likewise, those who are certified as intersex will be able to obtain a passport marked "X". According to the Australian passport office, this will denote "indeterminate/unspecified/intersex".

[Padma]

"...current social scientific and feminist thinking, which regards gender as social construct and sex as biological..."

This is yet another example of a specific discipline, who defines its terms in a very specific way, being surprised when the general public don't consider terms to be as specific as they do. In general usage, "gender" and "sex" are much more interchangeable in terms of their meaning than they are within social science and feminist disciplines, in my experience. The tendency in general language is always towards the non-specific, just as it is always towards the specific within specific disciplines.