The US State Department has halted processing passport applications with an “X” gender marker following an executive order from President Donald Trump, which asserts that the US recognizes only two sexes: male and female, according to reports.
An internal email obtained by The Guardian revealed that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, acting on the executive order signed by Trump on Monday, instructed department staff to implement the new policy, stating: “The policy of the United States is that an individual’s sex is not changeable.”
Trump’s executive order declares that the US recognizes only “two sexes, male and female,” referring to this as an “immutable biological reality.” The order, titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” mandates that government-issued IDs, including passports, visas, and entry cards, reflect a person’s “immutable biological classification as either male or female.”
The State Department had begun issuing passports with the nonbinary “X” gender marker in April 2022. However, on Thursday, department staff were instructed to “suspend any application requesting an X sex marker” and to “suspend any application seeking to change their sex marker” in line with the executive order, according to The Guardian.
The NOTUS news site, citing the White House, reported that the executive order does not affect existing passports but requires that renewals reflect the sex assigned at birth.
Anadolu reached out to the State Department for comment but has not received an immediate response.
