Trump's passport policy leaves trans, intersex Americans in the lurch
Source: NPR
February 21, 2025 6:38 PM ET
Louie figured he was taking a gamble when he submitted his passport application after President Trump's inauguration. He had a passport, which was valid for another two years. But at the end of December, a New York state court approved Louie's request to change his name and gender marker. As a result, he needed a new passport — regardless of who was in office. Louie asked NPR to identify him by his first name because he fears harassment and retaliation at work.
Louie, 24, identifies as transmasculine. At the end of 2024 and early January, he changed his driver's license and Social Security card to reflect the female-to-male gender marker update. It went smoothly, he told NPR. The trouble started in January, when he submitted his application for a new passport — just hours after Trump took office on Jan. 20. The same day, Trump issued an executive order stating that the federal government recognizes only two sexes, male and female.
That led the State Department to eliminate the X gender as an option and to suspend its policy allowing transgender, intersex and nonbinary people to update the sex field of their passports. This executive order has upended the lives of individuals in prisons, at schools, seeking health care and in sports. It's now disrupting the lives of some trans, nonbinary and intersex people when they travel.
An estimated 1.3 million adults in the U.S. identify as transgender or gender nonconforming, and as many as 5 million Americans may be intersex, according to a brief published last month from the Williams Institute, a think tank at UCLA Law School that researches sexual orientation and gender identity.
Read more: https://www.npr.org/2025/02/21/nx-s1-5300880/trump-passport-policy-trans-gender-intersex-nonbinary