Travelers can once again get a U.S. passport that aligns with their gender identity, for now.
U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick in Boston expanded a preliminary injunction on Tuesday against a Trump administration policy of only issuing passports reflecting a person’s gender assigned at birth.
In the past, Americans had been able to get passports in line with their gender identities, including an “X” marker as of 2022.
Here’s what travelers should know.
How we got here
On President Donald Trump’s first day back in office, he issued an executive order requiring the federal government to only “recognize two sexes, male and female,” declaring “these sexes are not changeable.”
When the State Department followed suit, transgender, nonbinary and intersex passport Americans were left in limbo for much more than travel.
“If our gender markers don’t match who we are, then it’s going to cause us problems, from housing from renting cars to renting hotel rooms to buying cars to buying houses, everything, you name it,” Mikaela, a transgender woman in Texas whose passport was on hold, told USA TODAY in January. “There’s so much more to it in every element that people just don’t think about.”
In April, Judge Kobick issued a preliminary injunction, allowing six people named in a lawsuit co-filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Orr v. Trump, to be able to get passports reflecting their gender identities while their case made its way through the courts.
On Tuesday, Kobick expanded that preliminary injunction, following motions for class certification and expanding the previous ruling to anyone who is or will be impacted by the administration’s passport policy, according to the ACLU.
A Virginian shows the Female gender marker on their current US passport, prior to beginning the process of filling out a passport application with an X gender marker on April 11, 2022.
What happens now
Following the ruling, the ACLU wrote:
“Today’s ruling from the court means that a passport with a sex designation that aligns with one’s gender identity or with an ‘X; sex designation should be made available to anyone applying to:
This includes those who, under the Trump administration’s policy, were previously sent a passport with a sex designation listing their sex assigned at birth after applying for a new, renewed, or replaced passport, and/or a changed name or gender marker.”
The ACLU encourages Americans to take advantage of this temporary reprieve from the policy.
USA TODAY reached out to the State Department for additional comment. The ACLU referred USA TODAY back to its latest statement.
It’s important the block is not permanent, though that is being pursued.
Contributing: Ben Adler, Kathleen Wong; USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Gender-restricting passport policy blocked. Now what?