YNOT – In a move many sexual-identity respect and tolerance advocates are hailing as a major step in the right direction, the Australian government has okayed an “indeterminate” classification for passports.

Now, instead of carrying a passport bearing a gender classification that may not match their physical appearance, intersex people — biologically not entirely male or female, including pre-operative transsexuals — may elect to display the gender they were assigned at birth or list their gender as “X.”

“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,” Australia Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said of the measure.

Australian Senator Louise Pratt, whose partner is a female-to-male transsexual, applauded the measure, as well.

“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,” she told the UK’s Daily Mail. “It’s a really important recognition of people’s human rights that if they choose to have their sex as ‘indeterminate’, they can.”

Peter Hyndal, who lobbied for the reform on behalf of the human rights group A Gender Agenda, said he was delighted to see Australia modify its passport rules to bring the documents more in line with those issued by the U.S. and Britain. Both countries allow applicants to present a physician’s statement attesting to completed or in-progress gender reassignment in order to receive a passport on which the individual’s gender diverges from that listed on his or her birth certificate.

Australia’s new passport rule is “amazingly positive,” Hyndal 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.”