1. A small, but important step. 

    Around the beginning of this year, the State Department began using gender-neutral language on U.S. passports — replacing “father” and “mother” with “Parent One” and Parent Two” — to make it simpler for nontraditional parents, beyond the male/female combination, to get passports for their children.

    Androgynous male model Andrej Pejic on the runway in Rio de Janeiro, June 4.