A Massachusetts district court has issued a stay on President Trumpʼs decision to recognize only biological male and female genders on passports. The stay will remain in effect while a lawsuit is pending.
Reuters writes about this.
After returning to office, Trump signed an executive order mandating that only two biological sexes be recognized: male and female. The State Department then changed its passport policy: instead of allowing passport applicants to determine their own gender, it preferred the information recorded on their birth certificate.
President Biden appointee Judge Julia Kobick expanded on her April ruling, when she issued a temporary injunction that allowed six transgender and non-binary people to obtain passports that match their gender identity.
On Tuesday, April 17, Kobick granted class action status to the case and suspended the policy against all transgender, intersex and non-binary passport holders. The case Kobick is leading is one of several involving Trumpʼs executive order, which the court is considering may violate the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
- The State Department has allowed passports to update gender designations for more than 30 years if they change gender. In 2022, the Biden administration allowed people to choose the “X” designation as a gender-neutral marker, as well as to choose whether to be recorded as male or female.
- Trump previously promised to “stop the transgender madness”. After his inauguration, his administration banned or restricted the use of hundreds of words on official websites, documents, and other public texts. The list included, in particular, the following words: women, equality, anti-racism, climate crisis, discrimination, feminism, gender, gender-based violence, inclusivity, LGBT, non-binary, trauma, victim, Gulf of Mexico, and more.
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