Following an executive order from President Donald Trump that restricts updates to the sex designation on passports, seven individuals have initiated a federal lawsuit against the State Department. The legal action challenges the department's refusal to issue passports with accurate sex designations for transgender, intersex, and nonbinary people.
On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order mandating discrimination against transgender individuals across federal government programs. This directive required identification documents like passports to reflect the individual's sex "at conception." As a result, the State Department began holding or rejecting passport applications from those seeking to update their sex designation.
Reid Solomon-Lane of North Adams, Massachusetts, expressed concern over the policy: “I’ve lived virtually my entire adult life as a man. Everyone in my personal and professional life knows me as a man... If my passport were to reflect a sex designation that is inconsistent with who I am, I would be forcibly outed every time I used my passport for travel or identification."
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has received numerous inquiries from affected individuals through its legal intake form. Over 1,500 transgender people or family members have reported issues with suspended or pending passport applications.
Historically, the State Department allowed changes to passport sex designations to align with gender identity. In 2022, it revised its policy to simplify this process and included options for M, F, or X designations. However, following Trump's executive order, applications aligning with gender identity rather than birth-assigned sex have been "suspended," according to public statements by the State Department.
The lawsuit was filed by the ACLU along with Covington & Burling LLP on behalf of seven plaintiffs impacted by the new Passport Policy. Sruti Swaminathan of the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project criticized the policy: “The plaintiffs in this case have had their lives disrupted by a chaotic policy clearly motivated by animus that serves zero public interest.”
Jessie Rossman of ACLU Massachusetts described these efforts as "cruel" and "unlawful," while Isaac D. Chaput from Covington emphasized that all individuals deserve dignity and privacy.
The lawsuit claims that the Passport Policy violates several constitutional rights under both procedural and substantive grounds. It argues that it breaches due process and equal protection clauses by restricting freedom of movement and discriminating based on sex. Additionally, it asserts First Amendment violations by forcing individuals to convey governmental messages they disagree with.
