MONTREAL – Non-binary Montrealer Alexe Frédéric Migneault entered day six of a hunger strike on Saturday as part of a bid to pressure Quebec’s public health insurance board to add a third...
That’s the crux of the issue here: someone does feel the need to not fill out the field (i.e. filling it in with an “X”), and the health authority is forcing them to use either “M” or “F”. They are fighting for that right because they are intersex or trans, but an identity card with one or two fields is not the place to explain, because biology is complex. For medical information, you read their medical charts or talk to the patient.
They are fighting for that right because they are intersex or trans
Where did you get that? The article indicates that they are non-binary. That is neither intersex nor trans.
That’s the crux of the issue here: someone does feel the need to not fill out the field (i.e. filling it in with an “X”), and the health authority is forcing them to use either “M” or “F”
But the person in question is non-binary, which is a gender identity unrelated to their sex. It is perfectly possible that this person feels perfectly okay with a health card that indicates that their gender identity is non-binary while their sex is binary. In that case, separating gender from biological sex in their health card would address the issue at hand, particularly since nothing would prevent both fields to be left empty if they so choose.
As for why it makes sense to specify the biological sex in their health card, it is a medically useful piece of information that 99% of the patients would have no problem recording. Don’t forget that patients are not always able to communicate at the time they are in need to health care. So, again, if it is useful and non-controversial for 99% of the patients there’s no reason to remove it, just provide a way for patients to opt out of a simple M/F choice if they wish to.
That’s the crux of the issue here: someone does feel the need to not fill out the field (i.e. filling it in with an “X”), and the health authority is forcing them to use either “M” or “F”. They are fighting for that right because they are intersex or trans, but an identity card with one or two fields is not the place to explain, because biology is complex. For medical information, you read their medical charts or talk to the patient.
Where did you get that? The article indicates that they are non-binary. That is neither intersex nor trans.
But the person in question is non-binary, which is a gender identity unrelated to their sex. It is perfectly possible that this person feels perfectly okay with a health card that indicates that their gender identity is non-binary while their sex is binary. In that case, separating gender from biological sex in their health card would address the issue at hand, particularly since nothing would prevent both fields to be left empty if they so choose.
As for why it makes sense to specify the biological sex in their health card, it is a medically useful piece of information that 99% of the patients would have no problem recording. Don’t forget that patients are not always able to communicate at the time they are in need to health care. So, again, if it is useful and non-controversial for 99% of the patients there’s no reason to remove it, just provide a way for patients to opt out of a simple M/F choice if they wish to.