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From this article in The Scotsman:

Nepal’s government will begin issuing citizenship certificates with the category “third gender” for people who do not wish to be identified as male or female.

From the Wikipedia article on Third Gender:

Nepal's 2011 census was the first national census in the world to allow people to register as a gender other than male or female.[19]

However, the Wikipedia article does not really discuss the aspect of a third gender in passports or ID-cards. If the information from The Scotsman (and other sources) is correct, Nepal will issue such certificates now. Are there any other countries that have done so?

3
  • Note: I'm not sure if "lgbt" is a correct tag here; feel free to correct if it isn't.
    – gerrit
    Jan 23, 2013 at 9:01
  • I've asked a meta question about the "lgbt" tag.
    – user97
    Jan 23, 2013 at 11:55
  • OTOH, I think that either lgbt OR queer need to be aliased to one another.
    – user4012
    Jan 23, 2013 at 14:24

2 Answers 2

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Before:

2005, Indian passport application forms were updated with three gender options: M, F, and E (for male, female, and eunuch, respectively).1

2009, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the Chief Justice of Pakistan, ordered that the National Database and Registration Authority issue national identity cards to members of the hijra community showing their "distinct" gender.2

2011, Australia passport holders can use "X" as their gender.3

After:

2012, New Zealand passport holders can use "X" as their gender.4

Also, historical documents have mentioned more than 2 genders, such as:
Inscribed pottery shards from Egypt (2000–1800 BCE) list three human genders.5
Kama Sutra (c. 4th century AD) as pums-prakrti (male-nature), stri-prakrti (female-nature), and tritiya-prakrti (third-nature).6
the Manu Smriti (c. 200 BC – 200 AD) explains the biological origins of the three sexes.7


1 'Third sex' finds a place on Indian passport forms
2 Pakistani eunuchs to have distinct gender
3 Getting a passport made easier for sex and gender diverse people
4 Information about Changing Sex / Gender Identity
5 Sethe, Kurt, (1926), Die Aechtung feindlicher Fürsten, Völker und Dinge auf altägyptischen Tongefäßscherben des mittleren Reiches, in: Abhandlungen der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, 1926, p. 61.
6 Kama Sutra
7 Manu Smriti

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3

Australia added a third gender option, indeterminate, in its passports in September 2011, and as far as I know it's the first country to do so.

Sources:

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  • 3
    2011? Bah. SQL had "NULL" values for "indeterminate" since 1975!
    – user4012
    Jan 23, 2013 at 14:11
  • @user4012 That is an abusive usage of NULL. Please don't use it to indicate a valid value.
    – JAB
    Jun 17, 2017 at 23:35

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