A child without a gender challenges our preconceptions about sex | Polly Carmichael

A Canadian child’s health card marked with a U for gender is a step forward for those who do not fit the binary model

• Polly Carmichael is director of gender identity services at the Tavistock Clinic

The Canadian health card issued to baby Searyl Atli marked with a U for gender highlights the increased need in society to recognise and accommodate diversity in gender identities and expression. Whether this U stands for unknown, undisclosed or unidentified is not clear. But a binary definition of gender and the assumptions and expectations that go along with this are problematic for those who do not feel they fit into this construct. And that binary model of gender is being challenged, with many young people conceptualising it in terms of a spectrum.

Related: ‘The system’s violating everyone’: the Canadian trans parent fighting to keep gender off cards

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