Canadian Baby Becomes The ‘First Without Gender Designation’ On Health Card

It is every parent’s right to raise their children as they see fit.

But it is very rare that a parent’s decision makes international headlines.

Now an eight-month-old Canadian baby’s health card may be the world’s first to be marked with gender ‘unknown’.

Kori Doty, doesn’t identify as either male or female and prefers to use the pronoun ‘they.’

They want to keep baby Searyl Atli’s gender off all official records, according to the CBC.

Doty claims that they are ‘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 recognizing 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 box and the girl box,’ Doty told the news site. 

Doty, is a non-binary trans parent. They have been trying to get British Columbia to issue Searyl a birth certificate without a gender marker since the child was born last November. 

So far refused they have refused but have issued Doty the child’s health card with a ‘U’ for gender last month.

The ‘U’ is presumed to mean ‘undertermined’ or ‘unassigned’, according to CBC. 

According to Doty’s lawyer, British Columbia only accommodates birth certificates for a male or female at the moment. 

However, there are some provinces like Ontario that are reviewing their policies to include a third, non-binary gender option on official documents.

But Doty is against this option fearing that they could become targets of discrimination and hate crimes.