  We describe an explicitly non-contextual statistical model of hidden
variables for the qutrit, which fully reproduces the predictions of quantum
mechanics and, thus, bypasses the constraints imposed by the Kochen-Specker
theorem and its subsequent reformulations. We notice that these renowned
theorems crucially rely on the implicitly assumed existence of an absolute
frame of reference with respect to which physically indistinguishable tests
related by spurious gauge transformations can supposedly be assigned
well-defined distinct identities. We observe that the existence of such an
absolute frame of reference is not required by fundamental physical principles
and, hence, assuming it is an unnecessarily restrictive demand.
