Passport Applications With ‘X’ Gender Marker Frozen Indefinitely

Instead of doing anything helpful for the people he has now been appointed to serve, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has made trans people his target. Rubio has ordered all passport applications that seek to mark an “X” for the gender marker be frozen indefinitely. It is unclear at this time how long the suspension will last as the State Department refused to comment. White house officials do state however, that this will not affect existing passports with the X marker until their time of renewal.

This suspension follows one of Trump’s infamous executive orders that states the existence of only two sexes. The executive order in question states that “sex” is not a synonym for and does not include the concept of “gender identity,” yet also states that “gender ideology” replaces the biological category of sex.” Clearly there is some confusion about gender and sex and the proper education has not found it’s way to the White House. Following this order that claims to “defend women,” Rubio issued a memo to the State Department telling them that sex will be used on the documents, not gender. He told his staff in the email that “sex is not changeable,” regardless of the fact that intersex people exist and that the marker on the passport is for gender and not sex.

Thankfully, groups like the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) and Lambda Legal are refusing to accept these attacks on our trans communities. Lambda Legal CEO, Kevin Jennings writes, “and we’ll continue to stand with Dana (Zzyym) and all intersex, nonbinary, and transgender people to defend their right to identity documents that accurately identify who they are and their equal protection rights against targeting and exclusion by their own government.” ACLU’s Chase Strangio says,“Just because we are seeing immediate action on this part of the (executive order) does not mean that the rest of the EO is going to be immediately implemented across the government.” There is still time, and we are still fighting.

The government cannot tell you who you are. Marco Rubio nor Trump nor anyone else can invalidate the person you know yourself to be regardless of the actions they take and the ill-informed rhetoric they spew. Take in this information, grieve, process, and seek support. You are still you. You are still important and valuable and worth fighting for.