“I know that in North Carolina, people are having to produce birth certificates to go to the toilet.”

In an article entitled, “Emotional student comes out to Obama at town hall in London,” Mashable reports that:

A student in London told U.S. President Barack Obama they identified as non-binary, and challenged the president to do more for transgender people.

Maria Munir, 20, welled up in tears at the “town hall” style meeting as they said they hadn’t told their parents about their identity.

Even getting the chance to address Obama had been difficult, because at the start of the question-and-answer session he said he would take questions alternating between men and women.

“I’m from a Pakistani Muslim background which inevitably has cultural implications and I know that in North Carolina, people are having to produce birth certificates to go to the toilet,” Munir said.

“In the UK we don’t recognise non-binary people under the equality act … I wish yourself and [UK Prime Minister] David Cameron would take us seriously as transgender people and, perhaps you could elucidate, what you can do to go beyond what has been accepted by the LGBTQ rights movement, in including people who fit outside the social norms?”

Obama commended Munir on their bravery. But he said that he didn’t have the power to overturn state laws, unless a federal law is passed.

“With the Congress I have, that’s not likely to happen,” he said.

“Maria Munir … said they hadn’t told their parents”? “Obama commended Munir on their bravery”? Munir’s indeterminant sexual identity certainly threw the Mashable reporter for a loop. Never mind about bathrooms, what are we going to do about pronouns?