Transgender citizens sue Trump over passport gender policy

Transgender citizens have filed a lawsuit over passport gender policy, challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order mandating that the U.S. government recognises only a person’s sex assigned at birth on official documents.

The complaint, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, accuses the State Department of rejecting passport applications from transgender citizens or issuing documents that reflect their sex assigned at birth instead of their gender identity.

“I’ve lived virtually my entire adult life as a man. Everyone in my personal and professional life knows me as a man, and any stranger on the street who encountered me would view me as a man,” said Massachusetts resident and plaintiff Reid Solomon-Lane in a statement provided by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which filed the lawsuit.

“I thought that 18 years after transitioning, I would be able to live my life in safety and ease,” Solomon-Lane added. “Now, as a married father of three, Trump’s executive order and the ensuing passport policy have threatened that life of safety and ease. If my passport were to reflect a sex designation that is inconsistent with who I am, I would be forcibly outed every time I used my passport for travel or identification, causing potential risk to my safety and my family’s safety.”

The lawsuit lists seven plaintiffs. In a news release, the ACLU stated that more than 1,500 transgender individuals or their family members have contacted the organization with concerns about obtaining passports that reflect their identity.

ALSO READ:California approves $50m to ‘defend’ immigrants, state against Trump
Trump’s executive order, signed on his first day in office, legally defined sex as strictly male or female. The order stated: “Invalidating the true and biological category of ‘woman’ improperly transforms laws and policies designed to protect sex-based opportunities into laws and policies that undermine them, replacing longstanding, cherished legal rights and values with an identity-based, inchoate social concept.”

Critics, including medical and legal experts, argue that the order disregards the reality of sexual and gender diversity.

In 2021, the State Department revised its policies, allowing applicants to self-identify as either “M” or “F” without requiring medical certification. It later introduced an “X” gender marker for intersex or nonbinary individuals.

Several states also permit residents to change their gender or sex on birth certificates and driver’s licenses.