Argentina creates new ID option for nonbinary people

Argentina has created a new gender option on national identification for people who are nonbinary in an attempt to be more inclusive.

Argentinian President Alberto Fernandez on Wednesday announced the country will be instating a new National Identity Document choice. Going forward, nonbinary Argentinians or those who identify as gender nonconforming, will be able to mark an X instead of identifying themselves as male or female on the IDs.

“There are other identities besides man and woman that must be respected,” Fernandez said during a news conference, Reuters reports.

“The ideal will be when all of us are just who we are and no one cares about people’s gender. This is a step we are taking, and I hope one day we get to the point where IDs don’t say if someone is a man, woman or anything else,” he added.

During the event, Fernandez, Argentinian Minister of Women, Gender and Diversity Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta and Interior Minister Eduardo De Pedro handed out the country’s first three nonbinary documents.

Gómez Alcorta described the new gender option as “an action focused on the construction of a more equal but also more inclusive society,” according to CNN.

Argentina is the first South American country to unveil a nonbinary national ID option, Reuters notes. Several other countries have already done so, including New Zealand, Canada and Australia.