A federal court has delivered a ruling that blocks a Trump-era policy preventing transgender, nonbinary, and intersex Americans from obtaining passports that reflect their true gender identity.
The controversy began with an executive order signed by President Donald Trump, which required the U.S. government to recognise only the sex assigned at birth on official documents, including passports. This policy reversed decades of precedent, during which individuals were allowed to update their passport gender markers to align with their lived identity.
The Trump administration’s directive mandated that passports display only “male” or “female” based on biological sex, eliminating the option for self-identification.
This policy quickly faced legal challenges from civil rights organisations and affected individuals, who argued that it constituted unlawful discrimination based on sex and violated constitutional protections. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other advocacy groups spearheaded efforts to contest the order, showing the harm it caused to transgender Americans by denying them recognition and dignity.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick of Boston expanded a preliminary injunction she had previously issued, which initially applied to a handful of plaintiffs. The judge granted class action status to the case, effectively halting the enforcement of the restrictive passport policy nationwide for all transgender, nonbinary, and intersex applicants.
In her ruling, Judge Kobick found that the policy was “rooted in an irrational prejudice toward transgender Americans” and likely violated the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
She emphasised that the government’s actions “affected all of them uniformly by preventing them from obtaining passports with a sex marker consistent with their gender identity.” Li Nowlin-Sohl, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs from the ACLU, described the ruling as “a critical victory against discrimination and for equal justice under the law.”
The Trump administration’s policy was widely criticised for rolling back progress made under previous administrations. For over thirty years, the U.S. State Department had allowed individuals to amend the gender marker on their passports. In 2022, the Biden administration introduced the option for applicants to select “X” as a gender-neutral marker, alongside “M” and “F” for male and female, respectively.
The outcome of this case is likely to have far-reaching implications for government policies and the ongoing struggle for equal rights and recognition for transgender and nonbinary Americans. As of now, the State Department has not commented publicly on the court’s decision.