Eighty-two members of the U.S. House of Representatives have signed a letter opposed to the implementation of the Trump administration’s anti-trans passport policy.
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The State Department suspended applications for passports to change gender and gender markers in January, and Secretary Marcolbio told staff “we only recognize two men and women, males and females,” in accordance with Donald Trump’s executive order. Seven people, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, filed lawsuits to challenge the policy.
State Department officials said existing passports with X markers will remain valid until they expire, but if the holder applies to renew them, they must have an M or F marker reflecting the gender assigned at birth. They also said that new applications require M or F markers. In February, the department asked the Administration and Budget Office to gather public comments about changes to the Passport Application.
All Democrats and 82 House members submitted letter On Monday, OMB director Russell said he was “strongly opposed” to the change. They are led by Julie Johnson and Emily Randall of the Congressional Equality Caucus Cochairs, as well as members of the Equality Caucus Kevin Marin and Gabe Amo.
“The State Department says it is based on Executive Order 14168.
Many holders say that gender markers that do not match gender expressions or legal names are hampered by the ability of transport security management workers to correctly identify passport owners.
“These inconsistencies add to the confusion and complicate the agent’s responsibility to ensure that the passport belongs to the passport holder,” they continued. “Using passports with false gender markers abroad puts Americans in dangerous and stressful situations with overseas passport control. The move also has been subjecting transport owners to harassment and violence, the author said.
“The underlying policy of rejecting transgender, non-binary, and intersex passports that reflect gender identity is to discriminate on the basis of gender, not substantially related to the important interests of the government, and does not advance the interests of the government, as appropriate, as necessary, under the fifth amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law.”
According to the representative, the State Department has allowed transport port owners to change gender markers since at least 1992. As of 2010, trans people no longer needed to show evidence of gender-affirming surgery to make a difference, but they allowed various other medical documents. In 2022, medical document requirements were removed and X-gender markers became available.
“The changes the Department has proposed for Passport Forms DS-11, DS-5504 and DS-82, and the new passport policy underlying the department harms our owners, causing serious constitutional concerns, and is in contrast to the purpose of paper reductions, as it undermines the purpose of the passport to correctly identify passport owners. “For these reasons, we will replace the term “gender” with “gender” and encourage you to abandon these proposed changes to require “birth biology” only for male or female options.
Signers are included LGBTQ+Rep. Mark Takano, Mark Pokan, Richie Torres, Becca Ballint, Robert Garcia and Sarah McBride are the first transgender members of Congress.
Source: Advocate.com – www.advocate.com
