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Comment by RhysU | Hacker News Reader

> How is it normal for a complete stranger to look at my ID and know (or at least think they know) what genitals I have?

Ignore naughty bits entirely! Everyone fixates on the naughty bits. Sheesh.

Imagine a 5'6" male. Imagine a 5'6" female. Imagine them wearing the same outfit. Do they look, stereotypically, different enough that you could tell which one is standing in front of you with high accuracy? Do you think this outward difference might be a useful identification tool to assess if a passport belongs to the passport holder? Must this indicator be sinister? Is it so sinister that the government should reject it for other, possibly more sinister indicators?

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Height isn't required on passports. Even though it identifies people more specifically than sex.

I would assume someone is trans if they matched the description and appearance on an identity document except for apparent sex.

Sinister is a straw man.

Who says they even have to be trans? If your security agents' brains are broken by a person not looking like a narrow stereotype of their sex, they're just bad at their jobs full stop (especially considering that they also have to identify children for example)

Most people look distinctly male or female. I think they meant someone who looks distinctly male and presents a passport marked female should be assumed an impostor. Not it would break anyone's brain.

> Most people look distinctly male or female

In my actual experience most people are neither broad-shouldered Adonises nor voluptuous femme fatales, and it only takes an unflattering angle or non-mainstream fashion choice (or even nothing but their own imaginations) for people to start questioning someone's sex.

> neither broad-shouldered Adonises nor voluptuous femme fatales

You have some narrow stereotypes if you think just those bodies look distinctly male or female.

> it only takes an unflattering angle or non-mainstream fashion choice (or even nothing but their own imaginations) for people to start questioning someone's sex.

Let's assume that's true. Are most angles unflattering? Are most fashion choices non mainstream?

> Ignore naughty bits entirely! Everyone fixates on the naughty bits. Sheesh.

Sex literally is about "naughty bits". That is what it is, by definition. That is the information that we go about disclosing to all and sundry.

> Imagine a 5'6" male. Imagine a 5'6" female. Imagine them wearing the same outfit. Do they look, stereotypically, different enough that you could tell which one is standing in front of you with high accuracy?

If your system of identification depends on assessing people's (secondary) sex characteristics, it's pathetically bad.

> Do you think this might be a useful identification tool to assess if a passport belongs to the passport holder?

You mean rather than use the picture?

You mean the one that can be years and years and years old? That likely was taken at Walgreens some Saturday morning? And which is not verified during the passport renewal? That one?

Yes, the one with more information, even when old, than any assumptions made based on sex.

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