DENVER (AP) - Nine state attorneys general are asking a federal appeals court to allow an intersex Colorado resident to get a passport listing the person's gender as nonbinary instead of male or female.

The states filed a brief with the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver asking the justices to uphold a lower court ruling that said the State Department couldn't deny a passport to Dana Zzyym.

Zzyym wanted a passport marked "X'' for gender, instead of "M'' or "F." The State Department refused, saying it would be hard to verify Zzyym's identity and check Zzyym's eligibility in government databases.

A U.S. district judge in Denver rejected that reasoning, and the State Department appealed.

States filing the brief are California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.

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This story has been corrected to show the person's last name is Zzyym, not Zyymm.

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