A group of seven transgender and nonbinary people have sued President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the federal government over the administration’s new policy to disallow individuals from updating the sex designation on their passports.
On Trump’s first day in office, he signed an executive order entitled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” which declared federal policy to “recognize two sexes, male and female,” and that “[t]hese sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”.. Continue reading here ▶
Following the order, the State Department stopped issuing passports, visas and Global Entry cards using the “X” gender option, which is often used by transgender, intersex, and other nonbinary individuals. After the order, applications that had already been submitted seeking gender marker changes were put on hold, and the State Department replaced the portion of its webpage dedicated to “LGBTQI+” with one referencing “LGB” people.
The change is a departure from the policy that has been in place for years, including throughout the first Trump Administration, which allowed individuals to change the sex designation on their passports to be in alignment with their gender identity, and which allowed gender identity options of M, F, or X. Similar policies are used in 21 states as well as the District of Columbia with respect to birth certificates.
The ACLU filed a lawsuit in federal court in Massachusetts Friday challenging what it called the “animus-filled executive order” on the basis that it discriminates against people based on their sex or transgender status, deprives them of their equal protection rights, and violates their rights to free speech and privacy.
The plaintiffs also contend that the administration failed to comply with the requirement that it provide a 60-day notice and comment period prior to the change.
“Those who look at the passport — including anyone hostile to transgender people, as the Trump Administration is and officials in many countries are — may discern that a passport holder is transgender from a perceived mismatch between the sex designation on their passport and their appearance, and may question the validity of their passport,” argued the ACLU in the complaint.
“The results may be catastrophic, including causing serious psychological harm, denial of the ability to enter or leave a country, physical violence from people who despise transgender people, and even the passport holder being arrested and imprisoned by border control agents in foreign countries.”
The complaint asserts that Trump’s order, “attempts to impose a government-wide policy that transgender, nonbinary, and some intersex people do not exist.”
“Intersex” is a nonmedical general term for a person whose anatomy does not fit the typical definitions of “male” or “female.” The term does not describe a person who has a gender identity different from his or her anatomy, but instead describes a group of non-binary anatomical conditions. Some intersex people are transgender because their gender identity is different from the sex they were assigned at birth. Some intersex people, however, were assigned a sex at birth that is the same as their gender identity.
One of the plaintiffs, Ashton Orr, argued in the complaint that past experiences have made him “terrified that having an inaccurate sex designation on his passport will cause TSA agents, border officials, or airline staff to single him out for invasive questioning, scrutiny, or mistreatment.”
Similarly, 22-year-old Zaya Perysian, a transgender woman, argued that before her identification documents were updated to reflect her female gender identity, she was, “patted down by TSA agents expressing their interest in confirming her sex,” and called “the prettiest boy” by TSA agents.
“It was devastating for Zaya to endure experiences like this, and it wasn’t until she was able to update her driver’s license that these occurrences became less frequent,” the complaint said. Perysian travels often for work and said she is even more afraid of security officers outside the United States where there is significant hostility toward the transgender community.
“The plaintiffs in this case have had their lives disrupted by a chaotic policy clearly motivated by animus that serves zero public interest,” said Sruti Swaminathan, Staff Attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project in a statement. “Our clients need to travel for work, school, and family, and forcing them to carry documents that directly contradict what they know about themselves to be true — or withhold those documents altogether — is a blatant effort to violate their privacy and deny them their freedom to be themselves. We’re thankful for their participation in this lawsuit and are hopeful the court will see through this flagrant attempt to violate our plaintiffs’ rights under the Constitution.”
Likewise, Jessie Rossman, legal director at the ACLU of Massachusetts, called the Executive Order “yet another example of the Trump administration attempting to deny the dignity of transgender people and trying to push them out of public life.
“These efforts are cruel, unfair, and unlawful,” said Rossman. “We’re challenging this unconstitutional Passport Policy because all people deserve the freedom to live their lives safely and with dignity.” profile,Donald Trump,LGBTQ,marco rubio,transgender