A parent in Canada is determined that their baby should not have a specified gender, in what could be a world first.
Kori Doty, who does not identify as either male or female, is campaigning for authorities to allow their baby Searyl to have no gender listed on any official records.
They told CBC they want Searyl to be genderless until they have "a sense of self and command of vocabulary to tell me who they are" and have refused to designate their child as either male or female.
"I'm recognising 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," they said.
Doty gave birth to Searyl in November 2016, and identifies as non-binary and trans. They said the Canadian province of Slocan Valley initially refused to provide a birth certificate unless they specified the gender of the baby, but have now allowed the gender to be marked as 'U' for unassigned or undetermined.
Doty wants all official documents in Canada to allow for people who do not want to identify as a particular gender.
"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," they said.
"Those assumptions were incorrect, and I ended up having to do a lot of adjustments since then."
Newshub.
