A Canadian baby may be the first in the world to be born without a recognized sex as the child’s mother, who identifies as neither male nor female, petitions the government to keep the baby’s sex off government documents.
CBC News reports a the mother, Kori Doty, who identifies as non-binary and prefers the pronoun “they,” gave birth to a child but wants the child to be raised without knowing whether he or she is a he or she.
In the quest for raising a gender-neutral child, Doty has already won one victory. The child, Searyl Atli, is potentially the first child to be marked as having an unknown sex.
Searyl received a “health card” with a designated “U” for “undetermined” or “unassigned” gender for the purposes of receiving medical care.
The province of British Columbia, however, is currently refusing to give Doty a birth certificate for her child without mentioning whether the child is male or female.
According to Rossland News, Doty will argue in front of a judicial review that not issuing the birth certificate with an unknown marker violates Searyl’s fundamental rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, BC’s Human Rights Code, and the Canadian Human Rights Act.
Doty told CBC News, “I’m 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.”
“When I was born, doctors looked at my genitals and made assumptions about who I would be, and those assignments followed me and followed my identification throughout my life," Doty told CBC News. “Those assumptions were incorrect, and I ended up having to do a lot of adjustments since then.”
Doty also said, “I want my kid to have all of the space to be the most whole and complete person that they can be.”
Despite trying to remove mentions of Searyl’s sex from birth certificates, transgender advocates often claim sex and gender are not the same.
Thank you for supporting MRCTV! As a tax-deductible, charitable organization, we rely on the support of our readers to keep us running! Keep MRCTV going with your gift here!