Rubio instructs staff to freeze passport applications with 'X' sex markers

[BumRushDaShow]

Last edited Thu Jan 23, 2025, 04:56 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: The Guardian

Thu 23 Jan 2025 12.52 EST
Last modified on Thu 23 Jan 2025 13.01 EST


The US state department has frozen all applications for passports with “X” sex markers and changes to gender identity on existing passports, following a new executive order signed by Donald Trump on his first day of office.

In an internal email shared with the Guardian, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, instructed department staff on Thursday to implement the strict new guidelines for official documentation. “The policy of the United States is that an individual’s sex is not changeable,” the email read.

Rubio’s directive states that “sex, and not gender, shall be used” in official documents including passports and consular report of birth abroad documents.

State department staff on Thursday were ordered to “suspend any application requesting an X sex marker” and to “suspend any application where the applicant is seeking to change their sex marker” from the definition provided in the executive order. The policy affects both current and future passport applications.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/23/trump-rubio-x-gender-passport

---

ETA - for reference: From 2022 -

The White House announces moves to gender neutral passports

[CousinIT]

1. What is an "X" sex marker? Is that what LGBTQ persons use instead of M or F?

Sorry for the ignorance. I never had a passport, so I have no idea how this works.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. Here (I'll add to the OP too)

From 2022 -

The White House announces moves to gender neutral passports

and

State Dept. Will Allow Americans to Mark Their Gender as ‘X’ on Passports


By Aishvarya Kavi
March 31, 2022



WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Thursday announced several measures intended to make federal forms of identification, applications for federal programs and travel documents more inclusive for Americans who identify as transgender or nonbinary, or who otherwise do not conform to traditional gender roles. One long-awaited change will give Americans the option of indicating their gender with an “X” on passports starting April 11.

The plan was announced last summer, shortly after the State Department rescinded a rule requiring a certificate from a doctor stating that an applicant had transitioned or was in the process of transitioning in order to change their gender on their passport.

Officials had said that making the “X” option available was complicated and would take time to complete. Douglass Benning, a principal deputy assistant secretary for the State Department’s bureau of consular affairs, said on Wednesday that the process had included collecting public feedback, consulting countries that had taken similar steps, and working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health to collect research on how to define an X gender marker.

“We are firmly committed to promoting and protecting the freedom, dignity and equality of all persons, including transgender nonbinary, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming persons around the world,” Mr. Benning said.

(snip)

[CousinIT]

10. Thank you. nt

[BumRushDaShow]

12. Most welcome!

[jls4561]

2. So Kaitlin Jenner has to stay home with the Kardasians?

Cruel and unusual punishment.

[Lovie777]

3. Rubio is not a good negotiator....

[dchill]

20. Rubio is not a good ... anything, that I can think of.

[maxsolomon]

4. Lawsuit by Friday

Injunction on Monday

[LeftInTX]

18. Yes, just imagine. If that person is legally "neutral"?

What do they do?

[patricia92243]

5. I don't understand this whole article. I've never actually seen a passport.

"Rubio’s directive states that “sex, and not gender, shall be used” in official documents including passports and consular report of birth abroad documents."

[BumRushDaShow]

13. Here

[LeftInTX]

17. So much for "generations to come"

[kacekwl]

6. Getting on with

Important stuff right a way. What a slimmy weasel.

[groundloop]

21. Exactly what I was thinking, they need to create controversy.

By creating controversy over something which should be none of their damned business they a) divert attention from their grifting and b) give lowlife magats someone to hate .

[berniesandersmittens]

7. Wow. Just fckn wow

[electric_blue68]

8. Damn, Bigots! 🤬

[morillon]

11. The GOP has become the party of Gleeful Sadism

Every last fucking one of these Executive Orders has this "Take THAT, you woke bastards! Haha!" vibe to it.

[OhioBack2Blue]

14. and then we bat it right back at that asshole...

with an INJUNCTION!

[Solly Mack]

15. ...

[Clouds Passing]

16. And ALL Dems voted for him

[LeftInTX]

19. And what about the gender queer people who didn't vote for Kamala because of Jill Stein?

And Gaza. There were lots of them...Lots of them...