Australia The Sex Discrimination Act of 1984 did not explicitly protect non-binary people from discrimination until the Sex Discrimination Amendment (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Intersex Status) Act of 2013, which prohibited any discrimination on the grounds of "gender identity" and "intersex status". This amendment also removed the use of "other" and "opposite sex" in exchange for broader terms like "different sex". In 2014, the
Australian High Court legally recognized non-binary as a category for people to identify with on legal documents. After
Norrie May-Welby made a request for a third gender identity on legal documents and was eventually denied, Norrie chose to take the matter up with Australia's
Human Rights Commission and their
Court of Appeal. After a four-year-long legal battle beginning in 2010, Norrie finally won the case. From this and the legalizing of the matter in
New South Wales, the
Australian Capital Territory decided to pass a law that recognized non-binary identities. Several other states and territories followed suit afterward.
Canada In 2002, the
Northwest Territories was the first of
Canada's provinces to explicitly include gender identity as a protected group from discrimination under the law, followed by
Manitoba in 2012. By 2015, every Canadian province and territory had included similar changes to their discrimination laws. In 2017, Canada passed
Bill C-16 which formally recognized non-binary gender people and granted them protection under the law towards discrimination on the grounds of "gender identity" and "gender expression."
Italy In 2024, the
Italian Constitutional Court, with judgment no. 143 of July 23, explicitly recognized for the first time the existence of non-binary individuals, affirming that they too are entitled to the protection of fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution—such as the right to personal identity, health, and equal social dignity (Articles 2, 3, and 32). However, the Court declared inadmissible the request to introduce a "non-binary" gender marker in the civil registry, stating that such a profound change to Italy's legal and administrative system—still firmly rooted in a male/female binary—requires legislative action and cannot be enacted through judicial interpretation alone. At the same time, the Court ruled unconstitutional the legal requirement for judicial authorization to access gender-affirming surgery after legal gender rectification, considering it an unjustified obstacle to individual self-determination. In summary, the decision marks an important step toward the recognition of non-conforming gender identities, but it leaves unresolved the full legal recognition of non-binary gender, which remains in the hands of Parliament. Non-binary individuals are now recognized as subjects of rights. It is no longer mandatory to obtain a judge's authorization to undergo gender-affirming surgery after the legal change of gender. For the first time, the Court explicitly acknowledges that there are individuals who do not identify as male or female, and affirms that their right to identity is constitutionally protected (Articles 2, 3, and 32). The obligation to obtain judicial authorization for surgery after legal gender rectification was declared unconstitutional, as it is no longer justified. In 2025, the
Italian Ministry of Education mandated that schools in the country ban the use of
gender-neutral language, such as
asterisks and
schwa.
United Kingdom Non-binary is not legally recognized as a gender identity in the United Kingdom. The
Gender Recognition Act 2004 allowed people to apply to the Gender Recognition Panel for a change of gender after living as the gender they wished to show on all their legal documents and being given a diagnosis of
gender dysphoria by at least two health professionals. However, this only allowed for a legal change of gender from male to female or vice versa. There is no non-binary specific legal
clinical pathway available for medical assistance, and non-binary people will receive a new
NHS number denoting the sex opposite to the one they were assigned at birth.
United States Despite being more likely to achieve higher levels of education when compared to the general public, 90% of non-binary individuals face discrimination, often in the form of harassment in the workplace. 19% percent of self-identifying non-binary individuals reported job loss as a result of their identities.
Identity documents In 2016, the U.S. State Department was sued for denying a passport to
Dana Zzyym, who is a veteran, an intersex person and then also identified as a non-binary person. Zzyym wrote "intersex" on their passport form instead of male or female, which were the only two available gender fields on the form. Zzyym was denied the passport, which led to LGBTQ advocacy organizations filing a lawsuit against the U.S. State Department on Zzyym's behalf. The advocacy group
Lambda Legal argued for gender-neutral terms and a third option on U.S. passports, arguing that the existing passport fields violated the
Due Process Clause and
Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The State Department argued that adding additional gender fields to the passport form would prevent the agency's efforts to combat identity theft and passport fraud. The Tenth Circuit Court ruled in favor of Zzyym, the first time in U.S. history that the federal government recognized non-binary people. In California, the Gender Recognition Act of 2017 was introduced in the State Senate in Sacramento in January 2017 and signed into law by governor
Jerry Brown on October 19. The law recognizes a
third gender option known as "non-binary" which may be used on state-issued documents such as driver's licenses to more accurately reflect a person's gender. Senate bill SB179 was originally drafted by State Senators
Toni Atkins and
Scott Wiener. The law also makes it easier for existing documents to be changed, by removing requirements for sworn statements by physicians and replacing it with a sworn attestation by the person seeking to make the change to their documents. The Executive Director of Equality California commented, "It is up to an individual—not a judge or even a doctor—to define a person's gender identity." The first two U.S. citizens to receive a court decreed non-binary gender were in Oregon and California. In
Oregon,
Elisa Rae Shupe was able to obtain a non-binary designation in June 2016 after a brief legal battle. Following in Shupe's footsteps,
California resident Sarah Kelly Keenan was also able to legally change her gender marker to non-binary in September 2016. After both Shupe and Keenan had success with their cases, more people have been inspired to take on the legal battle of changing their gender to a non-binary marker. With the help of organizations such as the Nonbinary & Intersex Recognition Project dozens of these petitions have been granted and additional states have changed regulations to provide a third gender option on state ID, birth certificates, and/or court orders.
Switzerland From 1 January 2022, it is possible to change your name and legal gender on documents in
Switzerland without the need for a medical report or judicial authorization. Despite this, there is no legal recognition of non-binary gender in the country and the
Swiss government has decided that it is not mandatory to recognize documents with neutral gender markers issued abroad, although it has expressed concern about the situation. A Tamedia survey found that 62% of Swiss are against the introduction of a gender-neutral marker in official documents, while around 35-40% are in favour of the change. ==See also==