NJ Joins Movement To Add Gender 'X' Option On FBI Crime Reports

NEW JERSEY — New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal is among 21 attorneys general from across the United States who are urging the FBI to formally recognize non-binary people for crime reporting purposes.

Grewal and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, who are leading the coalition, sent a letter Monday to FBI Director Christopher Wray urging the FBI to add a new "X" gender code, to indicate a person is non-binary, to its Uniform Crime Reporting system.

Currently, the UCR system only allows for male or female gender designations when law enforcement agencies across the country submit crime data to the program.

"New Jersey protects the rights and interests of non-binary individuals in many ways, including by making the X gender marker available on driver's licenses, and we are eager to do the same in our crime data collection efforts," Grewal said. "We urge the FBI to make this possible by adding a non-binary gender designation to the UCR system, and do it sooner than later. This will allow us to affirm the gender identity of non-binary individuals and improve our ability to identify and understand crime trends nationwide."

The New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission added a gender "X" option on state driver's licenses and non-driver identification cards on April 19. New Jersey was among 23 other states and Washington, D.C., to make this change. Read More: NJ MVC Adds Gender 'X' Option For Licenses, ID Cards

"We applaud Attorney General Grewal for once again positioning New Jersey to lead the nation on LGBTQ equality," said Christian Fuscarino, executive director of Garden State Equality. "Adding an X gender marker allows non-binary and intersex people to enjoy a right that many of us take for granted — having an ID that accurately reflects who we are. We must ensure that all systems are updated in a way where members from the LGBTQ+ community are identified in a consistent way."

The letter sent to the FBI states that by not having an "X" gender option it "discourages law enforcement agencies from collecting data that accurately reflects the gender of gender non-conforming individuals."

Additionally, the letter says adding the non-binary designation will help improve the accuracy of the FBI's crime statistics overall by generating information about the criminal victimization of the non-binary population.

The coalition of attorney generals includes New Jersey, Massachusetts, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.

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