A baby born in Canada in November 2016 has been issued a healthcare card that doesn't mark them as male or female. According to CBC, Searyl Atli Doty is the first baby to not be assigned a gender, and the baby's parent, Kori Doty, opened up about the decision to let the child identify their own true gender.
© Photo: iStockSearyl has become the world's first genderless baby
In a statement, they said: "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. Those assumptions were incorrect, and I ended up having to do a lot of adjustments since then. 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 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."
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As Searyl was born at home, and so was not assigned a sex at birth by medical professionals. Instead, the province of Slocan Valley has issued the baby with a health card with 'undetermined/unassigned' instead of a gender designation. Kori is a member of the Gender-Free ID Coalition, which aims to remove "all gender/sex designations from identity documents". Speaking about the baby, Kori continued: "It is up to Searyl to decide how they identify, when they are old enough to develop their own gender identity."
