Passport applications have been suspended for people who are seeking a gender change or do not wish to mark their sex as male or female, according to an email Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent to staff Thursday. Rubio’s mandate follows through on President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring that the United States recognizes only two sexes.
The move came as a blow to travelers who celebrated when the Biden administration began allowing them to reflect their gender identity on their passports under a new policy. Those changes, announced in 2021 after years of advocacy and legal fights, allowed nonbinary, intersex or gender-nonconforming people to use an X designation rather than male or female and made it possible for transgender people to select their gender without needing to provide medical documents.
Here’s what affected travelers should know.
What is changing under Trump’s executive order?
Trump’s executive order says that agencies must require people to select “sex” rather than “gender” on documents and that government-issued identification documents, including passports, will need to reflect people’s sex as defined in the order.
The order says departments that issue passports, visas and Global Entry cards must make changes to require that those documents reflect an individual’s sex, as defined by reproductive cells at conception.
In an email obtained by The Washington Post, Rubio instructed department staff to “suspend any application requesting an X sex marker” as well as applications where people seek to “change their sex marker from that defined in the executive order.” The directive applied to applications in progress or future ones and told staff to wait for further guidance.
The State Department “will no longer issue U.S. passports … containing an X sex marker,” the email said.
Agencies were ordered to remove any statements, policies, forms or other messages that “promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology.”
That erasure was well underway this week. Links that previously explained the option to select a third gender marker redirected to a page for general passport information on the State Department website, and a link that once led to news of the first passport with an “X” gender marker instead gave an error message.
As of Friday, a safety-focused page for overseas travelers who are LGBTQ+ remained.
The White House press office did not respond to multiple requests for comment. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the nonprofit news site NOTUS that gender-nonconforming travelers would have to follow the executive order to obtain new or renewed documents.
“They can still apply to renew their passport – they just have to use their God-given sex, which was decided at birth,” Leavitt told NOTUS. “Thanks to President Trump, it is now the official policy of the federal government that there are only two sexes – male and female.”
Several other countries allow citizens to select a gender-neutral designation on their passports, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India.
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What were the rules for sex markers on passports under Biden?
In 2021, the State Department said transgender travelers would be able to select their gender on passports – including changing a previous designation – without medical certification, as they had previously been required to do.
At the time, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the department was moving toward adding a gender marker on passports for gender-nonconforming, nonbinary and intersex people. (The announcement is gone now, but available on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.) The department issued its first passport with an “X” designation in late 2021, to an intersex and nonbinary person who had fought in court for years for the option. The designation became available to all Americans by April 2022.
An archived version of the State Department’s page on gender markers shows where to select M, F or X when applying for a passport, as well as a box to check if someone were making a change. “It does NOT need to match your ID or citizenship documents,” the graphic says. It also says, “No additional documents are needed.”
Passports are valid for 10 years for people who are 16 and older and five years for children.
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What happens to passports that already have an X marker?
According to Rubio’s email: “Guidance on existing passports containing an X sex marker will come via other channels.”
Trump administration officials did not provide details about the effect on current passports to The Post. But NOTUS reported that the White House told the outlet the order was not retroactive and did not render existing passports invalid.
The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, analyzed the executive order for potential effects and wrote that while transgender and nonbinary people would not be able to get new or renewed passports that reflect their gender identity, “regulatory safeguards protect validly issued passports” from being rescinded.
“Although this administration has now suspended issuing passports with accurate identity information moving forward, it’s important to emphasize that passports issued prior the executive order remain valid,” Paul Castillo, deputy legal director at Lambda Legal – which represented the first person to get a U.S. passport with the “X” gender marker – said in an email.
The State Department does not publish information on how many people have received passports with the gender-neutral “X” designation and did not provide those figures or statistics on how many people have requested to change their gender on passports.
A 2022 estimate from the UCLA School of Law Williams Institute, which researches public policy and laws about gender identity and sexual orientation, says 16,700 people may ask for passports with an “X” gender designation every year. That’s based on demand for the gender-neutral option on driver’s licenses in states where that is available.
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How does the executive order affect Global Entry?
The Department of Homeland Security said in 2022 that it was updating Trusted Traveler programs – which include Global Entry – to align with passport options. Customs and Border Protection issued a notice and request for comments in late 2023 about adding a gender-neutral marker for those programs, but it’s not clear how that was implemented.
Customs and Border Protection referred questions to the White House, which did not respond.
This week’s executive order says Global Entry cards must “accurately reflect the holder’s sex” as defined in the mandate.
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How are LGBTQ+ advocates responding?
Groups that fight for rights of transgender, nonbinary and intersex people have criticized the order and urged people who are affected to be vigilant.
In an emailed statement, Human Rights Campaign spokesman Brandon Wolf wrote that the order “threatens to upend everyday life for people across the country.”
“People rely on their passports for many things – and without a passport reflecting who they actually are (including their legal name and lived gender), transgender people may struggle with simple activities like checking into a hotel, ordering a drink at the bar, or traveling through an airport,” he said. “This will needlessly subject individuals to humiliation and harassment and make all of us less safe.”
The organization also noted that it would take time for details on implementation of the orders to be developed and that many of them would be challenged in court.
Castillo said in an interview that Lambda Legal is encouraging people who are having problems with current passports or who have applications denied to contact the nonprofit organization’s help desk.
He said he understands the fear among travelers whose passports may be affected.
“Its purpose is to immediately create fear and ultimately cause discrimination, harassment and other injury to transgender, nonbinary and intersex folks,” he said.
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What should transgender, nonbinary or intersex travelers do if they need a passport?
Castillo suggested holding off on applying for a new passport or passport renewal for now.
“It would be prudent to wait a few weeks, if possible, to see what formal policy changes come out [of] the State Department,” he wrote in a follow-up email Friday morning.
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When will more information be available?
It’s not clear when the State Department will provide new guidance to travelers; representatives directed questions to the White House. But the executive order, dated Monday, says that agency heads are required to provide an update on how they will implement the mandate within 120 days.
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Emily Davies contributed to this report.
