Australian passports will now have three gender options - male, female and x. The new category is only for use by intersex people - who are not biologically entirely male or female。

　　Transgendered passport-holders - who have changed gender but not had surgery - will be free to choose either male or female, but will not be allowed to select 'x'。

　　Previously, travellers were not able to change sex on their passport unless they had had surgery。

　　This is still the case in many countries, although any nation under the International Civil Aviation Organization's authority is eligible to introduce category 'x'。

　　In Britain, people do not have to had an operation to change their passport details, as long as they have evidence that they are permanently living in a new gender role。

　　Australian Senator Louise Pratt, whose partner was born female and now lives as a man, said the reform was a major coup for people who have trouble when going abroad because their appearance does not match their gender。

　　She said: '"X" is really quite important, because there are people who are indeed genetically ambiguous and were probably arbitrarily assigned as one sex or the other at birth。

　　'It's a really important recognition of people's human rights that if they choose to have their sex as "indeterminate", they can.'

　　Kevin Rudd, Australia's foreign minister, said: 'This amendment makes life easier and significantly reduces the administrative burden for sex and gender diverse people who want a passport that reflects their gender and physical appearance.'

　　Peter Hyndal, who negotiated with the Australian government on the reforms on behalf of human rights advocacy group A Gender Agenda, said the new guidelines were in line with more flexible approaches to gender in US and British passports。

　　'It's amazingly positive,' he said. 'It's the biggest single piece of law reform related to transgender and intersex issues at a commonwealth level ever in this country - mind-blowing.'

　　澳大利亚护照今后将新增“第三种性别”，以“X”作为标记。“第三种性别”仅适用于“阴阳人”，也就是在生理上无法完全归属于男性或女性的人群。

　　改变了性别，但没有做过变性手术的护照持有者可以自由选择是“男”还是“女”，但不能选择第三种性别“X”。

　　此前，没有做过变性手术的旅行者无法自由改变护照性别。

　　尽管国际民航组织的所有成员国都可以引入“X”性别，但很多国家都无此规定。

　　在英国，人们无需做变性手术就可以更改护照性别，只要有证据证明自己将永远以新的性别身份生活。

　　澳大利亚参议员露易斯•普拉特称，对那些出国时因为外貌与护照性别不符而受阻的人们来说，这绝对是个大好消息。普拉特的伴侣出生时是女性，但现在以男性身份生活。

　　她说：“第三种性别真的很重要，因为有些人生来性别就不清楚，但出生时被任意指定为某种性别。”

　　“这是对人权的重要肯定，允许人们选择第三种性别‘不确定’。”

　　澳大利亚外交部长陆克文说：“设定第三种性别使生活变得更加容易，对那些想拥有一本可以反映自身性别和身体特征的变性人群来说，这极大减轻了行政负担。”

　　彼得·海恩铎表示，新规和英美护照性别更宽松的处理方式相吻合。他代表人权倡议组织“性别议程”和澳大利亚政府就各项改革进行谈判。

　　他说：“这很有积极意义。这是澳大利亚联邦一级最大的一次与变性及阴阳人问题有关的法律改革，非常令人兴奋。”