A new passport ban in the U.S. is the first step toward enforcing President Trump’s controversial policy recognizing only two genders. In his 2017 inauguration speech, Trump declared that the federal government would acknowledge “only two genders,” a stance now becoming official policy through an executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” The order defines gender as immutable and strictly tied to biological sex, clarifying that males and females are determined at conception based on reproductive cells. This policy rejects gender identity in favor of biological sex and mandates that federal agencies remove any support for “gender ideology.”
One immediate consequence is the change to passport applications. Under the new rules, transgender and non-binary individuals can no longer select ‘X’ as their gender on passport forms. Instead, passports will only recognize ‘male’ or ‘female’ based on biological sex. Those who previously obtained passports with an ‘X’ marker will not have them revoked, but will not be able to renew or replace their passports with this option. The change reverses a policy introduced by the Biden administration in 2022, which allowed for the ‘X’ marker to accommodate non-binary individuals. This new approach is seen as a direct challenge to LGBTQ+ rights, particularly for transgender and non-binary Americans.
