I know you're probably wondering - what is Gender Neutral?
To put it simply, gender neutral is a word or expression that cannot be taken to refer to one gender only. Gender neutral can come in the form of toys for children, legal documents that don't require you to tick male/female, or words to describe transgender people who identify as having no gender.
The Gender Neutral community is becoming more and more visible in UK society, with Selfridges recently releasing their own line of "Agender" clothing and androgynous YouTuber's such as Sebastian Simon and Jason Simone rising to online popularity.
Non-Binary people are no longer completely unheard of, and that should be acknowledged by our current government.
The government recently responded to a petition demanding that non-binary people be recognised by the government - and calling for the introduction of gender neutral Passports so that people who do not wish to do so are not forced to declare a gender. How did the government respond to reasonable requests from a community that's coming out of the closet and into mainstream society? They said that we suffer no "specific detriment" and that gender neutral passports are not current policy!
Naturally, social media erupted as the non-binary community detailed the detriments and discrimination that they had faced and continued the pleas for recognition.
The Green Party, at their most recent conference have officially recognised non-binary identities - and Labour has recently made gender neutral passports its official policy. Progressive parties are lining up to offer comfort to the gender neutral communities here in the UK, and it is about time that the Conservative Government did the same.
In a recent review of the UK's transgender policies, the House of Common's Women and Equality committee stated that the process of having your gender recognised should be as simple as it now is in Ireland and that the draconian system of having to prove your identity should be scrapped.
The review also called for the introduction of gender neutral passports.
There is much demand out there for introducing gender neutral passports and I speak from personal experience of the distress caused when having to declare a gender that you simply do not possess. People should not be forced to fit into a box that is simply too small and restrictive for them. People should be free to express themselves in every way they can and people shouldn't be forced to align themselves to the binary genders that society is trying to cling onto.
For most people, being cisgender male/female makes them happy - but for the small percentage that aren't happy with that, they should be allowed to express their true identity on their passports.
Surely it could be classed as fraud to tick the male/female box on your passport application form when you're not actually either of them?
To summarise, gender neutral passports should be introduced as soon as is possible. Our government should follow the lead of Australia and Nepal and allow their citizens to express themselves truthfully.