Lawsuit Challenges Donald Trump’s Passport Policy on Gender Identity Issue
February 8, 2025
4,250
A federal lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order that mandates U.S. government documents, including passports, recognize only a person’s sex assigned at birth, was filed on Friday by seven plaintiffs who identify as transgender or nonbinary.
Newsweek has reached out to the State Department and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) via email as well as the U.S. Department of Justice via online email form for comment.
Why It Matters
Since beginning his second term, Trump has taken steps to unravel protections for transgender people as transgender rights have been under scrutiny since his 2024 campaign.
On Inauguration Day, Trump signed an executive order titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism And Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government.” The order mandated that his administration would use “clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.” The federal government will also use the word “sex” instead of “gender” with all official documents, including passports, visas and Global Entry cards, “accurately reflecting the holder’s sex.”
“Agencies are no longer going to promote gender ideology through communication forms and other messages,” a Trump administration official told reporters at the time, adding that “federal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology.”
This order has already caused the State Department to stop issuing passports with an “X” gender marker, compelling transgender individuals to apply for travel documents that do not align with their gender identity.
What To Know
Seven individuals filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration on Friday in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts, accusing the State Department of denying passport applications from transgender citizens or issuing documents that fail to reflect their gender identity.
According to the court documents, filed with support from the ACLU, the administration’s policy is “unlawful and unconstitutional,” adding that it “discriminates against individuals based on their sex and, as to some, their transgender status.”
The plaintiffs, who identify as transgender or nonbinary, stated they “fear that having incorrect sex designations on their passports will cause them further mistreatment.”
The executive order and the subsequent lawsuit comes after the State Department relaxed its policies in 2021 allowing U.S. citizens to self-identify as either “M” or “F” without needing medical certification or additional documentation. In 2022, the agency allowed citizens to be able to select “X” as their gender, to signify an “unspecified or another gender identity.”
The State Department’s webpage with information about the “X” marker appears to have since been taken offline.
While the details of how passports with the “X” marker will be handled are not yet known, the order may mean that people with these passports have to go through the process of applying for new ones.
According to the court documents, while some plaintiffs have submitted their passports for renewal or to change their passport sex designation, which the State Department will deny under the passport policy, others have not out of fear the State Department will suspend their application, hold their passport, or will send back an unusable passport with the wrong sex designation.
A partially completed passport application, with an X gender marker, is seen on a computer monitor in Alexandria, Virginia, on April 11, 2022. A partially completed passport application, with an X gender marker, is seen on a computer monitor in Alexandria, Virginia, on April 11, 2022. STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images
Other Transgender Executive Orders
Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports. The order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” directs federal agencies to enforce Title IX—a landmark civil rights law protecting against sex-based discrimination in education—under an interpretation that defines sex strictly by biological assignment at birth.
The directive grants federal agencies broad authority to penalize schools and athletic organizations that do not comply. The order also calls on state attorneys general to establish enforcement measures and legal strategies to uphold the new mandate.
This comes after Trump signed another executive order to prevent transgender service members within the military.
What People Are Saying
Massachusetts resident and plaintiff Reid Solomon-Lane said in a statement, per ABC News: “I thought that 18 years after transitioning, I would be able to live my life in safety and ease. Now, as a married father of three, Trump’s executive order and the ensuing passport policy have threatened that life of safety and ease. If my passport were to reflect a sex designation that is inconsistent with who I am, I would be forcibly outed every time I used my passport for travel or identification, causing potential risk to my safety and my family’s safety.”
Rena Bitter, the then-Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, said in 2022: “I am very proud that the Department of State will be the first federal government agency to offer the “X” gender marker on an identity document. The Department of State is committed to promoting the freedom, dignity and equality of all people – including transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming persons around the world.”
President Donald Trump said during his inaugural speech: “This week, I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life. We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based. As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.”
Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson in a statement: “The incoming administration is trying to divide our communities in the hope that we forget what makes us strong. But we refuse to back down or be intimidated. We are not going anywhere. And we will fight back against these harmful provisions with everything we’ve got.”
What Happens Next
The lawsuit marks the latest legal challenge to the Trump administration’s policies regarding transgender rights, which have been a flashpoint of controversy throughout his presidency.
The State Department has not yet responded to the complaint, according to ABC News.
Um die besten Erfahrungen zu bieten, verwenden wir Technologien wie Cookies, um Geräteinformationen zu speichern und/oder darauf zuzugreifen. Wenn Sie diesen Technologien zustimmen, können wir Daten wie das Surfverhalten oder eindeutige IDs auf dieser Website verarbeiten. Die Nichteinwilligung oder der Widerruf der Einwilligung kann bestimmte Merkmale und Funktionen beeinträchtigen.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
