A federal judge in Massachusetts has blocked the Trump administration’s move to stop providing X-gender markers on US passports and to allow passport holders to change gender markers.
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US District Judge Julia Covic, president Joe Biden’s appointee, granted the motion for a preliminary injunction on Friday. Associated Press Report.
In January, the State Department implemented a policy that affects transgender, non-binary and intersex people. Donald Trump’s executive order recognizes only the genders of men and women, denies that gender can change. This policy does not affect existing passports, but applies to new passports and renewals. Five trans people and two people filed a lawsuit against policy in a US District Court in Massachusetts in February.
“The executive order and their face passport policies should be reviewed under interim judicial scrutiny, as they classify passport applicants based on gender,” Kobick wrote. “The standard requires the government to demonstrate that its actions are substantially related to the government’s important interests. The government was unable to meet this standard.”
The people who were sued are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, Massachusetts affiliates and the law firm Covington & Burling. “We all have the right to ensure the accuracy of our identity documents, and this policy, as reported by the AP, stated, ACLU lawyer Sruti Swaminathan:
“This decision is a key victory over discrimination and is for equal justice under the law,” said Li Nowlin-Sohl, senior staff lawyer at ACLU. LGBTQ & HIV Project, added to a press release. “But it is also a historic victory in the fight against this administration’s efforts to drive transgender people out of public life. The State Department’s policies are an unfounded barrier for transgender and intersex Americans, denying the dignity we all deserve.
“The ruling affirms the inherent dignity of our clients and acknowledges the immediate and profound negative impact of the Trump administration’s passport policy on their ability to travel for work, school and family,” said Jesse Rothman, the ACLU’s legal affairs director in Massachusetts. “By enforcing people to document directly contradicting their identity, the Trump administration is attacking our right to privacy and the foundations of our own freedom. We will continue to fight to rescind this illegal policy.
Under Biden, the State Department made the X option available to all applicants in 2022 and easily changed gender markers. I issued one passport with an X marker in 2021. He was suing Dana Zzyym, an intersex and non-binary US Navy veteran of Colorado, to offer only the male or female choice in the passport application.
When Covic heard the debate three weeks ago, he had expressed his skepticism about the Trump administration’s passport policy. “It seems like he’s denying that gender identity is worth recognizing,” she said. Reuters. She also noted “a large number of government actions against transgender and non-binary people.”
When defending the policy, the administration’s lawyers “do not violate the constitution’s equal protection guarantee,” the AP reports. However, many judges have found that discrimination based on gender identity violates these guarantees. And 2020 Bostock v. Clayton County The U.S. Supreme Court held that discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation is sex discrimination and is therefore prohibited by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The High Court decision, written by Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch, was applied solely to discrimination in work, but was used to oppose discrimination in other areas of life.
The Trump administration further argued that the policy would not harm passport holders because it continued to travel freely, but many trans, binary and intersex people were worried that having gender markers that didn’t suit their appearance would cause difficulties while traveling.
Source: Advocate.com – www.advocate.com
