Friday, July 18, 2025

Genderless ID card issued in Yucatán

A voter ID card without a male or female gender designation has been issued for the first time in the state of Yucatán. 

The Yucatán office of the National Electoral Institute (INE) announced Wednesday that a nonbinary voter ID card had been issued in the state capital Mérida in accordance with “the affirmative action for inclusion” promoted by the autonomous elections and voting oversight agency. 

Fausto Martínez holding an AMLO doll.
Fausto Martínez became the first Mexican to be legally recognized as nonbinary in 2022, after petitioning the Supreme Court to issue a new birth certificate. (Fausto Martínez/Twitter)

The person who received the card was not identified by name but INE Yucatán posted photos of them to its Twitter account.    

Members of the electoral institute’s general council voted in late February to allow genderless ID cards, and the first were issued in Aguascalientes last month. 

Instead of an M for mujer (woman) or H for hombre (man), INE cards issued to people who identify as nonbinary have an X in the gender field. Applicants for genderless voter IDs simply have to identify themselves as nonbinary. Citizens can also request a voter ID card on which the gender field is left blank. 

There is no requirement to present a birth certificate showing that the person is officially recognized as neither male nor female. 

The first person in Mexico to be issued a birth certificate identifying them as nonbinary was Fausto Martínez. In late 2021, Martínez petitioned a federal court to recognize their gender identity after the Civil Registry in Guanajuato denied their request for a corrected birth certificate.  

Early last year, a judge granted Martínez’s request for an injunction and ordered the registry to issue them a new birth certificate, which it did on Feb. 11, 2022.

Edie Galván Villareal of Nuevo León became Mexico’s second officially recognized nonbinary person just over a year ago. 

More recently, Jesús Ociel Baena Saucedo, a judge with the Electoral Tribunal of the State of Aguascalientes, was granted an injunction that allowed them to get a new birth certificate without a male or female gender designation.

With reports from Milenio and La Jornada Maya 

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
Sheinbaum displays a Finabien bank card

Mexicans in US can avoid remittance tax with government Finabien cards, Sheinbaum says

0
The government is also updating consular services for Mexicans in the U.S., eliminating filing fees and allowing online appointment scheduling.
A man stands by an open suitcase in an airport revision area

Foreign national caught with over a million pesos of ketamine in Cancún airport

0
Officials confiscated 2 kilograms of ketamine, a controlled substance in Mexico.
two people walkin gby a for rent sign

Can rent control stop gentrification? Mexico City officials plan to find out

9
Political leaders in the nation's capital have reached into their anti-gentrification toolkit and come up with an approach that goes straight to the heart of the problem.
BETA Version - Powered by Perplexity