Trump order ends passport gender changes for trans people. What to know about policy
The U.S. State Department has stopped issuing gender marker corrections on passports, leaving trans Americans unsure if international travel is possible, let alone safe.
An executive order from President Donald Trump earlier this month called for federal agencies to wipe out any acknowledgement of transgender people, intersex people and nonbinary people, in everything ranging from anti-bullying guides for schools, to federal identification documents. The U.S. Bureau of Consular Affairs last week cut out any mention of trans travelers from its website. Only a page with tips for “LGB” travelers remains, a shortening of the LGBTQIA+ acronym that excludes trans and intersex people.
The move to remove trans people from official documentation is part of a larger effort by the Trump administration to push back against “ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex,” the executive order says.
As a result of the order, requests for corrections to passports’ gender markers that were underway have been frozen en masse. Arli Christian, Senior Policy Counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union, said their organization has gotten reports of trans applicants getting issued a new passport with the incorrect gender. Others had their applications simply denied, effectively preventing them from leaving the country, Christian told McClatchy News in an interview.
“When the government is trying to police our genders… we all end up being scrutinized, we are all at risk of being targeted,” Christian said. “This is not just about the very small community of trans, intersex and nonbinary, non gender-conforming people who are directly harmed.”
Each person’s case is unique, Christian said, and everyone impacted should seek specific legal advice from a trusted source like those listed below.
Lambda Legal Help Desk: https://lambdalegal.org/helpdesk/#contact
Transgender Law Center: https://transgenderlawcenter.org/get-help/
Trans Legal Services Network Directory: https://transequality.org/resources/trans-legal-services-network-directory
“As you think about how in the world the State Department is going to implement this nonsensical, nonscientific order, they’re going to have a very hard time,” Christian said.
Christian said fear of travel is at an all-time high among trans and nonbinary Americans, and the fear is warranted. She warned that while there is no legal requirement for gender markers to match across passports and state IDs, the ACLU has received reports of airport security harassing trans and nonbinary travelers.
“They may require additional screening. They may threaten to withhold passports or identity documents,” Christian said. “So we are seeing a ripple effect of this executive order, in sowing chaos and confusion and misinformation and ultimately, harm.”
Christian said anyone who absolutely needs to travel should at least update their passport with a name that matches their state IDs.
“In all of these attacks on access to accurate documentation, attacks on the very foundation of who we are as trans and gender-nonconforming and intersex people, they have not been able to attack our right to be able to be called by the name we want,” Christian said.
Getting a U.S. passport was a difficult process for transgender people before the new policy, because some states make it difficult or impossible for them to correct identification documents like IDs and birth certificates.
According to the Movement Advancement Project, four states bar residents from updating the gender marker on their driver’s license: Florida, Kansas, Tennessee and Texas. Those four, plus Oklahoma and Montana, bar residents from updating their birth certificate, while others have either unclear processes, leave it to a judge’s discretion or require proof of surgery to change the certificate. As a result, gathering the necessary documents for a passport is already a challenge to trans and nonbinary people in most of the United States.
“Folks in those states are certainly going to have a harder time if and when their passport comes up for renewal or they need to get a new passport,” Christian said. “Very often to get that passport, you’re going to have to show your birth certificate as proof of US citizenship, and it puts people in a terrible bind because of where they were born.”
Sydney Duncan, senior counsel with Advocates for Trans Equality, said those documents are crucial to obtaining medical care, employment and housing. She said the legal argument for accurate passports will be similar to those A4TE has used at the state level.
“These are important parts of people’s lives,” Duncan said. “They’re a component of safety, and it’s a shame the administration has ignored that.”
Christian said fighting the executive order in the courts is the most likely path forward, but that’s going to be a long and difficult battle.
This story was originally published February 3, 2025 at 3:01 PM.
