The US government has reversed a recent policy shift that implied passports showing a trans person’s affirmed gender identity could be invalidated.
Less than a week after the change appeared on the US State Department’s website, a section referencing the invalidation of passports not reflecting a person’s “biological sex” has been quietly removed.
The change, first reported by Transitics journalist Aleksandra on Thursday, 13 November, had indicated that the department would no longer issue passports with gender-neutral “X” markers or allow any marker not matching the sex assigned at birth.
Now, Transitics reports the department has updated the language again, assuring that “all passports remain valid for travel until their expiration date.”
Introduced in 2022, “X” gender markers were a landmark move for gender-diverse Americans, allowing passports to better reflect their identity without requiring medical documentation. This latest update appears to protect the validity of those documents – at least for now.
Several other changes were spotted in the “FAQ” section of the website. Originally, a question about the validity of passports with “X” markers suggested documents could be invalidated “under federal regulations.” The revised answer now states: “All passports will remain valid for travel until their expiration date, under International Civil Aviation Organization policy.”
The clarification follows a controversial US Supreme Court decision that permitted the government to enforce a Donald Trump-era executive order. That order restricts changes to gender markers on official identification, overturning a previous injunction that had blocked its implementation.
In dissent, Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson criticised the ruling, describing it as a “pointless but painful perversion.”
According to Aleksandra, the policy backflip may reflect the “intensive labour” and complications such a move would entail. “The administration would heavily burden itself both logistically and financially,” she noted.
While Trump or the White House has not yet addressed the apparent reversal, the decision to quietly restore validity to trans and non-binary passports is being welcomed by advocacy groups and affected individuals alike.
Even prior to the Supreme Court ruling, US airlines had reportedly been directed in October to ignore “X” markers under a Customs and Border Protection directive. While existing passports would remain valid, any new IDs issued were expected to match the person’s sex assigned at birth.
