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LEGAL ENGLISH · LEGAL ISSUES · INTERMEDIATE (B1-B2)

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YOURSELF
QrrkoD Scan to review worksheet

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1 Warm up

Look at the photo. Discuss the questions in groups.

1. What is the difference between gender and sex?

2. From the point of view of society and the law, is it necessary to know someone’s gender? Why or
why not?
3. What are some laws related to gender that you are familiar with in a jurisdiction? When were
these laws passed? Might these laws change in the near future?

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2 Focus on vocabulary

Part A: Work in A/B pairs and read the sentences below. What do you think the words in bold mean?

1. The school acknowledged that there were some barriers to providing enough help for students
with learning difficulties, but efforts would be made to remove them.
2. When the jury came back with a verdict in favour of her client, the lawyer declared that it was a
victory not only for her client but for women everywhere.
3. Although the need to use the toilet is a universal experience, it is a personal experience for
everyone, and my clients feel a decision to remove gender-neutral toilets in the building will violate
their rights since they use those toilets daily.
4. Many visitors who are menstruating or pregnant seek privacy and do not want to use a toilet if
men are using the same facility.
5. The law on this matter is ambiguous, so I’m not sure I can give you accurate advice without first
doing some research.

Part B: Now, match the vocabulary to the definitions. Use the basic grammar forms. Decide which
parts of speech each of the words is.

a. to say something clearly and definitely, often in a public way

b. the monthly flow of blood that indicates the ability to have a child

c. success in war, game, election, etc.

d. a problem or rule that stops people from doing something

e. attempt to find, obtain, or achieve

f. by or for all people in a group

g. go against or refuse to obey a law or an agreement

h. something that can be understood in more than one way

i. to accept the truth, importance, or quality of something

j. correct and true in all ways

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3 Listening for specific information.

Complete the sentences with the correct word.

gender-neutral / universal

A toilet is for use by anyone, but it has a common area for

waiting and handwashing.

A toilet may also be used by anyone, but there is no common

area for waiting or handwashing.

4 Listening comprehension
Listen to the broadcast again and decide if the sentences are true (T) or false (F) and explain your
choices.

1. The move to have separate toilets for men and woman will affect all offices, hospitals and entertainment
centres in the UK.

2. The UK government’s move is mostly in response to complaints from men.

3. The legal expert believes women may need more time in the toilet because of biological functions.

4. Some members of the LGBTQ+ community are not happy with this move because they think it
may be one step closer to putting up barriers to their rights.

5. The government wants to eventually stop having universal toilets.

6. According to the move, people who don’t want to use a men’s or women’s toilet would still be able
to use a universal toilet.

7. Some women feel unsafe in a universal toilet.

8. Gender-neutral toilets and toilets for men or women use space less effectively than universal
toilets.

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5 Grammar: "either/or" and "neither/nor"

Either/or and neither/nor are correlative conjunctions. They refer to the one or the other of two alternatives.
Either/or affirms each of two alternatives, while neither/nor simultaneously negates them.

Read the examples. What do you notice about the verb forms?

The verb form corresponds to the second item in the pair.

Note that Or or Nor can begin a sentence and be used without either or neither. This adds emphasis in
formal writing. e.g. "Offending others is not his intention. Nor is violating the rights of others."

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Now, read the sentences and choose the correct answer.

1. My client wants either an apology or damages / he wants damages.

2. None of that mattered to Marcos. Or / Nor did it matter to his family.

3. Neither do you have to pay nor do you have to sign / have to sign anything.

4. We should either call or we should email / email them today.

5. Neither the judge nor the lawyers is / are here.

6. You were either unlucky or / nor unprepared.

6 Legal vocabulary

Part A: Complete the chart with the correct forms for the different parts of speech.

verb noun adjective

refuse (1) refusable

complicate (2) complicating/(3)

(4) access (5)

(6) selection selected/selective

establish (7) (8)

Part B: Complete the sentences with the correct answer from A.

1. We think having several solicitors working on this issue would the issue unless
we had a clear understanding of who was in charge.

2. My client uses the pronouns they / them and feels that their employer’s to
acknowledge and use these pronouns is a violation of their rights.

3. You cannot the judge who will hear your case. We have no control over that.

4. She is going to a legal centre to support the LGBTQ+ community.

5. No one should have to my client’s employment record without proper permission.

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7 Reading: predicting content

You are going to read an article about gender neutral passports available in the United States. First
read through the headings of the article. Match the sentences with the headings that most likely
contain that information.

1. There is an international agency that establishes standards of passports for use in all countries.

2. Other people will benefit from the actions taken by the plaintiff in their efforts to get an accurate
gender mark on their passport.

3. The United States no longer requires individuals to select a traditional gender on their passports.

4. Dana Zzymm went to court several times in order to ask that they be allowed to have a passport
with Gender "X".

8 Finding vocabulary
Scan the article again and find words or phrases which mean the same as the following.

1. the act of saying something is accurate or true according to certain standards

or procedures (n, para. A)
2. to say when something happened, was made or existed (v, para. B)

3. started something (v, para. B)

4. that used to exist or be a certain way but is no longer (adj, para. B)

5. showing something (v, para. C)

6. before or happening at an earlier time (adj., para. D)

7. caused or was the reason for something (v, para. G)

8. something that shows you are coming to the end of a long and difficult
situation (idiomatic expression, para. G)

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Being oneself
Gender neutral passports available in the United States

Forced to be ’male’ or ’female’ no more

A. In April 2022, American citizens received the right to select an "X" as their gender on their passports. Furthermore,
the Passport Office no longer requires medical certification to change the gender marker for holders of existing
US passports. Thus, individuals who had been required to declare themselves as either male or female can now
seek new passports with the gender "X".

This history behind the statutory change

B. The push to have this option dates back to 2015 when Dana Zzyym, who uses the pronouns they / them, launched
a legal battle against the US State Department because of its refusal to issue a passport acknowledging Zzyym was
intersex. Zzyym was born with ambiguous sex characteristics, although Zzyym’s parents decided to raise them
as a boy. Zzyym, who is a former Navy sailor, came to realise in their 20s that they had been born intersex, and
felt they were neither male nor female. Zzyym’s lawyers argued that the State Department was violating Zzyym’s
legal rights by denying them a passport that accurately reflects their gender.

C. The process for Zzyym to receive their gender "X" passport was long and complicated. In October 2015, lawyers
for Zzyym filed a suit in the US District Court for the District of Colorado, claiming that the US State Department
violated the federal Administrative Procedure Act by denying Dana a passport that accurately reflected their
gender. The Court ruled in favour of Zzyym on 22 November 2016, and, again, after an appeal, on 19 September
2018. The State Department then appealed to the Tenth Circuit. During the course of the legal action, Dana
received a Colorado Driver’s License bearing an "X" after the authorities in that state updated the policy in 2018.

D. In 2020, the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ordered the State Department to reconsider its prior
decisions denying Zzyym a passport with a non-binary gender marker. In that ruling, the court noted that forcing
intersex individuals to pick either a male or female gender marker on the passport application "injects inaccuracy
into the data." As the ruling stated:

E. "A chef might label a jar of salt a jar of sugar, but the label does not make the salt any sweeter. Nor does requiring
intersex people to mark ‘male’ or ‘female’ on an application make the passport any more accurate."

Non-binary gender passports in the world

F. With the change in policy, the United States joins at least ten other countries that issue passports with gender
markers other than "F" (female) or "M" (male), including Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Denmark, Germany, India,
Malta, Nepal, New Zealand, and Pakistan. Most countries that offer a third marker in the sex field on passports use
"X", a gender marker recognized by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a United Nations agency
that establishes international travel document standards.

Implications of the availability of Gender "X" passports

G. The Gender "X" passport is not just a victory for Dana Zzymm, but for others like them. "The update to the State
Department’s policy has been a long time coming and is prompted in large part by three separate court rulings
in Dana’s favour," Lambda Legal Counsel Paul D. Castillo said. "Dana showed incredible courage throughout, and
it is rewarding now to see the light at the end of the tunnel. With today’s announcement, countless intersex,
nonbinary, and other gender-diverse United States’ passport applicants will at last get the accurate passports
they need. As important, self-certification of their identity removes unnecessary barriers and makes accurate IDs
accessible to more people, reducing discrimination (of)... transgender people."

Sources: bbc.com; state.gov; lambdalegal.org;

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9 Reading comprehension

Read the article again and choose the correct option.

1. In the United States in the past, the Passport Office...

a. allowed people to change the gender on their passport if they used pronouns they / them.

b. allowed the use of "X" to show someone identified as neither female nor male.

c. would not permit the change of gender on one’s passport under any circumstances.

d. would allow the gender on one’s passport to be changed with medical certification.

2. Dana Zzymm was born...

a. female but raised male by their parents.

b. with both male and female sex characteristics.

c. intersex but wanted to be male.

d. male but felt they were neither male nor female.

3. Zzymm received a driver’s license in Colorado with an "X"...

a. before bringing a suit for a Gender "X" passport.

b. before Colorado changed its law to allow people to get an "X" on their driver’s licenses.

c. while they were in the process of using the court system to get a Gender "X" passport.

d. after they won the right to get a Gender "X" passport.

4. Most of the countries that allow a gender other than male or female...

a. are in Europe.

b. have allowed this for years.

c. have their own, unique gender marker.

d. use a gender marker recognised by a UN agency.

5. According to Paul D. Castillo, Lambda Legal Counsel, ...

a. it is surprising how quickly Zzymm was able to win their case to receive a Gender "X" passport.

b. Zzymm’s legal victory will help to remove barriers to accurately expressing one’s gender
identity.
c. the court rules in favour of Zzymm twice, so that is evidence that Gender "X" passports are
justified.
d. there are unlikely to be more additional victories for the LGBTQ+ community based on this
ruling.

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10 Talking point

Work in pairs or small groups and discuss the questions below.

1. What are the reasons for and against issuing Gender "X" passports?
2. What is your opinion about Gender "X" passports?
3. Look at the countries listed in the article that have gender-neutral passports. Do any of these
surprise you? Why or why not?
4. What does this statement from the court in the Zzymm case mean to you?

"A chef might label a jar of salt a jar of sugar, but the label does not make the salt any sweeter. Nor
does requiring intersex people to mark ‘male’ or ‘female’ on an application make the passport any
more accurate."

11 Optional extension/Homework

Choose one question and write a paragraph (200 words). Ensure that you check your grammar,
spelling and punctuation.

Topic 1

Is it important to offer gender-neutral facilities in public buildings or are universal toilets an

acceptable option? Why?

Topic 2

Should countries issue passports with a gender-neutral mark? Why or why not?

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