On day 1 of his second term in office, Trump issued an executive order that sought to restrict legal definitions of gender. The order decreed that it will be “the official policy of the United Sates government that there are only two genders, male and female.” That part alone removes legal recognition for intersex and nonbinary people. But the order also stated that “sexes that are not changeable,” while insisting that the federal government use the term “sex” instead of “gender.”
While an executive order like this on day 1 had been predicted, the language still left things unclear. It states that official documents, including passports, must “accurately reflect the holder’s sex.” However, there was little information on how that would be enforced and what it would mean for people already holding federal identification documents that had been updated to accurately reflect their gender, whether that be with “male,” “female,” or an “X.” At the start of 2025, Florida cancelled a trans woman’s driver’s license under the state’s new rules around gender markers, so there is a concerning precedent for an update being threatened by these policy changes.
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However, the non-profit NOTUS received clarification from the White House on what the executive order actually means for those with corrected documents. The order will not be retroactive and any passports or other federal documents that bear a corrected gender marker will remain valid unless additional actions are taken. With the new orders, some officials might feel emboldened to be unpleasant to people they perceive as having an updated gender marker or those who use an “X,” but the documents themselves will still remain in effect and be able to be used for travel.
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Unfortunately, what Trump’s executive order on gender does affect is any new applications or applications for renewals. The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said that trans and non-binary people “can still apply to renew their passport — they just have to use their God-given sex, which was decided at birth.” Leavitt’s comments actually disagree with the wording of Trump’s order, which states that gender is defined at conception, which some have pointed out would mean that everyone was technically female now.
While this is cause for a sigh of relief for those who were able to update their documents before Trump took office again, the future remains uncertain for everyone. On the one hand, for the most part Trump’s cabinet still needs to be confirmed and it won’t be until further down the line that we know how they plan to enforce this order and what other policy changes might be in the future. But at the same time Trump’s gender order (along with his attack on birthright citizenship) will be the target of legal challenges from the ACLU and others. While it’s reasonable to not have high hopes for the Supreme Court rejecting Trump’s order, there may be stays place on his actions and we can watch the SCOTUS decision on their gender-affirming care case this summer to see which way the wind will blow.
Have you tried to change your gender marker since the inauguration? Tell us about you experience and other interactions with the government while queer at [email protected].
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Monday brings the inauguration, but anti-LGBTQ+ politics aren’t waiting (and neither are trans girl scouts, who you can help sell cookies.)
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