The US State Department has frozen all applications for gender identity changes on passports with an “X” sex marker and existing passports, following a new executive order signed by Donald Trump on his first day in office.
In an internal email shared with the Guardian, Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday directed department staff to implement strict new guidelines for official documents.
“The policy of the United States is that an individual’s gender does not change,” the email read.
Rubio’s directive states that “gender, gender shall not be used” in official documents, including passports and consular reports of births abroad.
State Department staff on Thursday were ordered to “suspend any application requesting a gender marker” and “suspend any application where the applicant changes their gender marker” from the definition provided in the executive order. do you want”. The policy affects current and future passport applications.
gave Executive orderTitled “Defending Women from Sexist Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” it mandates that government-issued identification documents must exclusively “recognize an individual’s unchangeable biological classification as male or female.” Use as a woman”.
The State Department began issuing passports with the non-binary third gender identity “X” in. April 2022. The White House stated that passports with an “X” identification are still valid, although there will be problems with renewals. News site Notus. According to Rubio’s email, “guidance regarding existing passports with an X-Sex marker will come through other channels”.
It is not clear how many passports currently use the “X” option.
