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President Alberto Fernández issued a decree establishing that Argentina's National Registry of Persons must adapt the characteristics and nomenclature of National Identity Documents and Passports by incorporating the X option to move away from the binary scheme of "female" and "male," in order to respect people's experienced gender identities. With this measure, the country becomes the first in Latin America to recognize identities outside of this binary and offer another option for those who do not identify as male or female. 

🇦🇷 #Now @alferdez , @EliGAlcorta and @wadodecorrido deliver non-binary documents to Gerónimo Carolina González, Valentine Machado and Shanik Lucián Sosa Battisti.
📲 https://t.co/SKGemGKEQX
⏩ https://t.co/1sm4om7zZl pic.twitter.com/RQeJZhDG6C

— Presentes Agency (@PresentesLGBT) July 21, 2021

The measure was announced this afternoon at an event at the Casa Rosada, where the President delivered the first three documents to non-binary people: Gerónimo Carolina González , Shanik Lucian Sosa Battisti, and Valentine Machado.

Presidential Decree No. 476/21 establishes that in the field referring to "sex," the options to choose from may be "F" - Female, "M" - Male, or "X." The "X" "will include the following meanings: non-binary, indeterminate, unspecified, undefined, uninformed, self-perceived, unstated; or another meaning with which a person who does not feel included in the male/feminine binomial could identify," the text of the decree states. 

What the decree says

Article 2 of the decree states: “It is determined that the nomenclatures to be used in National Identity Documents and Ordinary Passports for Argentines that may be recorded in the National Identity Document, as well as in the Argentine Electronic Passport, in the area reserved for “sex”, and in accordance with ICAO Document No. 9303, the nomenclatures “F”, “M” or “X”, thus leaving the scheme of binary possibilities that existed prior to the issuance of this measure.” 

Among the main arguments put forward in the decree text is “complying with Law No. 26,743 on Gender Identity,” passed in Argentina in 2012, and with international agreements signed by the country. “This measure is issued to comply with the provisions of Law No. 26,743 and to facilitate the physical registration of the “sex” in the National Identity Document as non-binary, and to respect the right to identity and identification in accordance with the terms of the aforementioned law and the International Treaties to which the ARGENTINE REPUBLIC has adhered,” the decree text states. 

Incorporating other identities outside the binary framework is a demand that has been a source of activism for several years. “Non-binary people like me have long demanded that the Argentine State issue documents that align with our gender identity. Today, some of us find ourselves undocumented or have ID cards with a name and gender we don't identify with,” said Fer Bugarin, from 100% Diversity and Rights in the province of Chubut, in the organization's statement. 100% Diversity and Rights promoted the recognition of non-binary gender identities on the ID card before RENAPER (National Identity Reduction Program). In 2021, it participated in a consultation process with this agency of the Ministry of the Interior and welcomed the measure. 

“Argentina is the first country in the region to recognize identities beyond binary gender categories in its registration and identification systems. The most recent national precedent is the Joint Resolution of ANSES and AFIP, which established the generic and non-binary nature of the prefixes (20 and 27) for CUIL and CUIT numbers and their random assignment,” the association stated. It also detailed that internationally, gender identities beyond the male-female binomial are already recognized by Germany, Canada, India, and the United States, among other countries. 

The criticisms and the president's response

Why the X? The X category for the "sex" field is permitted by international standards for travel documents and by the international conventions to which the Argentine Republic adheres. This was also explained in the video that opened the presidential ceremony where the documents were presented.

However, the measure doesn't please everyone: some activists, upon learning of the measure, expressed that they don't feel represented by the letter X. And they demand other types of categories that make their identities visible. It remains to be seen how their demands are channeled.

Criticism was also heard at the event at the Bicentennial Museum where Alberto Fernández handed over the documents. When Valentine Machado, an activist from Todes con DNI (Todes with National Identity Document), received his document with the X, he showed off a T-shirt that read "We Are Not X." At that moment, an activist participating in the event in the front row shouted his protest.

Minutes later, when the President took the floor, he alluded to this. "I heard someone complain, 'But there are other ways.' Of course there are other ways. They are included within that 'X,' which is an international convention that allows us to expand rights in the sense of that international convention. And that's a step forward. We shouldn't deny this." 

Fernández explained that when Minister Wado de Pedro raised the issue with her, she asked, "Why an X?" The response was, "Because it's how international conventions have advanced to recognize a non-binary category."

Non-binary people exist, resist and fight

For several years, people who do not identify with binary categories have been making demands before the RENAPER (National Registry of Persons with Disabilities) and/or the courts. Lisandro Lombardi, a human rights activist and literature student at the National University of Misiones, became the first non-binary person to achieve registration rectification in that province but he had to continue fighting to obtain his document.

Another small victory occurred in Tierra del Fuego in 2019. Following an appeal for protection filed with the provincial courts, a ruling authorized Shanick Sosa Battisti—one of the people who received an ID card with the X today—to register as “non-binary .” It was the first court ruling of its kind in Tierra del Fuego and one of the first nationwide. The ruling required that the box on the birth certificate corresponding to sex be explicitly marked as “non-binary/equal.” It also ordered the Civil Registry to amend the child's birth certificate and record the new name and self-identification of the parent.

A year earlier, the Mendoza Civil Registry modified, without legal action, the birth certificates of two non-binary individuals who requested that their new documentation not indicate a sex. In that box, they wrote " none, as permitted by Article 2 of Law 26.743 ."

One of those individuals is Gerónimo Carolina González Devesa, a doctor, who also received his DNI from the President today. González Devesa approached Eleonora Lamm when his private health insurance provider was demanding a change of National Identity Document (DNI) to undergo breast masculinization surgery. Lamm, then Deputy Director of Human Rights at the Mendoza Provincial Court, supported his request. She accompanied him to the Mendoza Civil Registry, where the request was submitted and the ruling was issued to accompany his gender identity change form, in November 2018.

"During the previous administration, RENAPER, despite having final rulings and even a favorable opinion from the Attorney General, refused to issue new DNIs. This left dozens of people without documentation," recalls 100% Diversity and Rights. 

“Non-binary people exist, resist, and fight. Today, as a result of that struggle, we have obtained legal recognition of our identity, which goes beyond the male-female binary. Breaking out of this pattern imposed by society not only with our words and feelings, but also with the endorsement of our identity documents. And with a clear public policy of recognition for all identities, this is the necessary starting point for social deconstruction,” said Sole Caballero, of Alto Valle Diverse in the National Network for 100% Diversity and Rights. 

“This DNU allows us to be visible and have a few more rights. Non-binary people have been fighting for a long time, as we suffer violence within society and institutions based on our identity. We hope that the implementation of this decision will contain and support us so we don't continue to be harassed,” said Eve Manino from Tucumán and 100% Diversity and Rights. 

The document with the X will be valid in MERCOSUR countries, the decree states. For other countries, it warns, "It is prudent and appropriate to inform those persons who voluntarily decide that their Travel Document, whether the National Identity Document and/or Argentine Electronic Passport, should contain an "X" in the "sex" field, about the possibility of encountering entry restrictions, even as transit passengers, in those States that have not yet adhered to said nomenclature." 

The struggle of non-binary people has increasingly more chapters and victories around the world. Arthur Britney Joestar, from El Salvador, became the first non-binary person to be recognized as a refugee in the United Kingdom . In a historic ruling , Appeal Judge Gaenor Bruce determined that if he returned to El Salvador, from where he fled, Joestar, 29, would be at risk of persecution and violence, as had already happened to him.

In Argentina, the new regulations establish identical rights for "foreigners who obtain and/or hold the National Identity Document for Foreigners, the Exceptional Passport for Foreigners, or the Travel Document for Stateless Persons or Refugees, under the conditions established in the relevant regulations." 

"A society with full rights for women, lesbians, transvestites, trans people, gays, intersex people, and non-binary people is a better society for everyone," said Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta, Minister of Women, Gender, and Diversity of the Nation, at the DNI presentation ceremony. "But, above all, it is a more democratic society."