On Friday, the Trump administration urged the Supreme Court to permit the enforcement of a passport policy requiring transgender and non-binary applicants to designate their gender as either male or female based on their birth certificates.
A lower court ruling allowed these individuals to obtain passports that included an “X” designation. According to the Associated Press, the Justice Department has appealed this decision.
In the court filing, a Justice Department attorney asserted that citizens cannot compel the government to use incorrect gender designations on identification documents that don’t align with biological sex.
In January, President Trump signed an executive order mandating that the federal government recognize only male or female designations according to “unchanging biological classification.” The directive applied to the State Department and how it issued passports.
A federal judge in Massachusetts ruled later that the State Department must issue passports reflecting the chosen gender of transgender and non-binary applicants.
The First Circuit Court did not block this order while the legal processes continued, suggesting that the administration pursue an appeal to the Supreme Court.
Interestingly, over 30 years ago, the State Department allowed updates to gender designations on passports. In 2022, the Biden administration introduced the option for an “X” designation as gender neutral, alongside the traditional “M” and “F.”
