With an executive order issued by President Donald Trump in his first week in office, transgender citizens now face complications when it comes to their passports and other identification.
“At present, United States passports with an X gender marker that were issued prior to the executive order are valid,” said a Tuesday press release from Garden State Equality, a New Jersey-based LGBTQ+ advocacy group. “However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has stated that ‘guidance on existing passports containing an X sex marker will come via other channels.’”
Trump issued Executive Order 14168 the day he was inaugurated. This “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth,” order stipulates that the U.S. only acknowledge two genders – male and female. However, the U.S. also has citizens who were born intersex, who identify as non-binary or who are transgender, meaning that they identify as a gender different than what they were assigned at birth.
In 2022, while former President Joe Biden was in office, a third gender option – X – was made available in the U.S. passport applicants. Per USA Today, this option did not require applicants to provide medical documentation.
Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union posted about changes to the passport application process in a series Bluesky posts.
“The State Department suspended all applications for passport gender changes in response to President Trump’s executive order restricting transgender rights,” said the first. “We know this has caused confusion. We’re monitoring the situation closely.”
It also noted that anyone who applies for a change runs the risk of losing their passport and documents.
Mikaela, a transgender woman in Texas whose passport also has yet to be approved after several weeks, told USA Today that having identification with gender markers that don’t match how people identify in their daily lives can cause a range of issues. She said they can cause problems in housing and renting cars to renting hotel rooms and more.
“There’s so much more to it in every element that people just don’t think about,” Mikaela explained.
Garden State Equality also said that the state of federal identification documents, such as visas and Global Entry cards, has also been changing since Trump took office just over a week ago. USA Today said that government agencies, including the U.S. State Department, are currently enforcing the new policy for all government-issued identification documents.
“In line with that Order, the Department’s issuance of U.S. passports will reflect the individual’s biological sex as defined in the Executive Order,” a State Department spokesperson told the outlet in an email. Updates are expected to be posted on the U.S. State Department website.
In a Tuesday article, non-profit news outlet The 19th said the suspension, “affects all transgender and nonbinary Americans, including those currently traveling or overseas,” and that, with no official policy on the State Department travel website, there was confusion among trans and nonbinary people looking to update their documents.
This suspension, made in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order signaling his administration’s opposition to gender diversity, affects all transgender and nonbinary Americans, including those currently traveling or overseas.
The agency says that it will issue guidance on previously issued passports with an “X” marker and that more information will be available on its travel website. However, no formal policy has been released, which is fueling confusion among trans and nonbinary people trying to update their documents.
For example, Ash Lazarus Orr, a trans activist living in West Virginia, who was cited by The 19th. Orr applied to change their name and gender marker on their passport days before Trump took office.
“He paid $300 for expedited service, but his paperwork wasn’t processed until January 22,” said the report. “When Orr called the agency’s hotline for Americans waiting on passports who have upcoming international travel, they were told that the agency had no guidance to offer and that their documents had been ‘set aside.’”
As first reported by The Guardian and The Intercept, Rubio reportedly instructed agency staff to implement Trump’s executive order as it pertains to passports last Thursday. Orr, meanwhile, is left without personal identity documents.
“The dismantling of this policy has radical consequences, said a former State Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity due to fear of lingering retaliation from the agency under the Trump administration, per The 19th. “Not only does it force transgender people to carry identity documents that don’t accurately reflect their identity, this move also signals globally that U.S. policy on trans rights is moving backward, they said.”