Canada Warns Travelers With X Marker on Passports They May Face Obstacles in US

Bro what

It is obviously based on an outdated concept of gender, but it actually is pretty useful to help match people to passports. If someone identifies as male but is dressed like a woman, it raises red flags. The answer to that might be as simple as "This is a 90s sitcom and I lost a transphobic bet" but it is there. Same with hair color.

Which, funny enough, is an argument for people to actually write down the gender they identify as. But it is also a lot like hair color or facial hair in that it is just too cost and time prohibitive to update a passport every time someone tries a new look. Because... genderfluid people exist.

States (a state is a government, a nation is a group of people) can do whatever they want with their passport. One of the perks of being sovereign. But there are groups of countries that have mutually agreed what should be on a passport and how/where.

The EU is a big example, but there is also a common passport for ECOWAS for several West African states and many others.

That said, I think they all list sex/gender, but I'm open to being corrected by someone who actually knows.