News & Opinion
Due to President Trump’s executive order, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has halted passport applications that contain requests for gender changes or have an X gender marker.
The executive order, titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, " mandates that government-issued identification documents only use male or female classifications.
In a document obtained by The Guardian, Rubio told staffers during his time in the Trump administration that “sex, and not gender, shall be used” on documents such as passports and overseas birth certificates.
Dana Zzyym, of Fort Collins, Colo., left, and Paul D. Castillo, staff attorney of the South Central regional office of Lambda Legal, after a hearing on Zzyym's lawsuit in Denver on July 2.
The usage of the X gender marker was first introduced in 2022 during the Biden administration following a federal lawsuit filed against the State Department in 2015. In the suit filed by Dana Zzyym, an intersex person who identifies as non-binary, Zzyym alleged that the State Department's reliance on a binary sex policy: (1) exceeded its statutory authority; (2) was arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act; and (3) violated the federal Constitution.
Following a 5-year court battle Zzyym became the first to receive a gender-neutral American passport. Following the landmark decision then Secretary of State Antony Blinken called it a milestone in serving all U.S citizens regardless of their gender identity.
”In June, I announced that U.S. passport applicants could self-select their gender and were no longer required to submit any medical documentation, even if their selected gender differed from their other citizenship or identity documents.” he said.
This decision comes on the heels of President Trump’s recent executive order declaring that the U.S. recognizes “only two sexes, male and female,”
During his inaugural speech earlier this month Trump said “As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female,” Trump said in his inaugural speech. He later signed the order that they “are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told NOTUS the executive order is not meant to be revisional and does not invalidate a person's passport before the recent change. However, once a person renewed their government-issued documents they must reflect the person’s sex assigned at birth.
“They can still apply to renew their passport — they just have to use their God-given sex, which was decided at birth,” Leavitt said. “Thanks to President Trump, it is now the official policy of the federal government that there are only two sexes — male and female.”