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.'
澳大利亞護照今後將新增「第三種性別」，以「X」作為標記。「第三種性別」僅適用於「陰陽人」，也就是在生理上無法完全歸屬於男性或女性的人群。
改變了性別，但沒有做過變性手術的護照持有者可以自由選擇是「男」還是「女」，但不能選擇第三種性別「X」。
此前，沒有做過變性手術的旅行者無法自由改變護照性別。
儘管國際民航組織的所有成員國都可以引入「X」性別，但很多國家都無此規定。
在英國，人們無需做變性手術就可以更改護照性別，只要有證據證明自己將永遠以新的性別身份生活。
澳大利亞參議員露易斯·普拉特稱，對那些出國時因為外貌與護照性別不符而受阻的人們來說，這絕對是個大好消息。普拉特的伴侶出生時是女性，但現在以男性身份生活。
她說：「第三種性別真的很重要，因為有些人生來性別就不清楚，但出生時被任意指定為某種性別。」
「這是對人權的重要肯定，允許人們選擇第三種性別『不確定』。」
澳大利亞外交部長陸克文說：「設定第三種性別使生活變得更加容易，對那些想擁有一本可以反映自身性別和身體特徵的變性人群來說，這極大減輕了行政負擔。」
彼得·海恩鐸表示，新規和英美護照性別更寬鬆的處理方式相吻合。他代表人權倡議組織「性別議程」和澳大利亞政府就各項改革進行談判。
他說：「這很有積極意義。這是澳大利亞聯邦一級最大的一次與變性及陰陽人問題有關的法律改革，非常令人興奮。」
（編輯：薛琳）