Editor’s be aware: This text has been up to date.
A sweeping government order that President Donald Trump issued on Monday bans the State Division from issuing passports with “X” gender markers.
Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June 2021 introduced the State Division would start to subject gender-neutral passports and paperwork for Americans who have been born abroad.
Dana Zzyym, an intersex U.S. Navy veteran who identifies as nonbinary, in 2015 filed a federal lawsuit towards the State Division after it denied their utility for a passport with an “X” gender marker. Zzyym in October 2021 obtained the primary gender-neutral American passport.
The State Division coverage took impact on April 11, 2022.
“The secretaries of State and Homeland Safety, and the director of the Workplace of Personnel Administration, shall implement adjustments to require that government-issued identification paperwork, together with passports, visas, and International Entry playing cards, precisely replicate the holder’s intercourse,” reads Trump’s government order.
The gender marker is among the many provisions contained inside Trump’s government order titled “Defending ladies from gender ideology extremism and restoring organic fact to the federal authorities.” Trump in his inaugural speech mentioned the federal authorities’s “official coverage” is “there are solely two genders, female and male.”
White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday advised the NOTUS web site the chief order will not be retroactive and won’t invalidate present passports with a gender-neutral gender marker.
“They’ll nonetheless apply to resume their passport — they simply have to make use of their God-given intercourse, which was determined at delivery,” mentioned Leavitt. “Because of President Trump, it’s now the official coverage of the federal authorities that there are solely two sexes — female and male.”
The Washington Blade on Thursday obtained a memo that directs State Division personnel to “droop any utility requesting an ‘X’ intercourse marker and don’t take any additional motion pending further steering from the division.”
“Please additionally droop any utility the place the applicant is looking for to vary their intercourse marker from that outlined within the government order
pending additional steering,” it reads. “This steering applies to all functions presently in progress and any future functions. Steerage on present passports containing an ‘X’ intercourse marker will come by way of different channels.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed the memo.
