The U.S. State Department Suspends Passport Applications With This Marker — Here's What Every Traveler Needs to Know

27.01.2025 - 18:41 / travelandleisure.com / Donald Trump / Marco Rubio

The State Department has suspended the processing of passport applications that selected “X” as their gender following an executive order from President Donald Trump making it government policy to only recognize male and female sex in the country.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio directed the State Department last week to suspend all current passport applications that had requested the gender option of “X,” or requested to change their sex marker, according to NBC News. The move follows an executive order issued by Trump that makes it the official “policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female” and directs officials to “implement changes to require that government-issued identification documents, including passports, visas, and Global Entry cards, accurately reflect the holder’s sex.”

Following that, Rubio issued a memo, which was reviewed by NBC News, specifying the word “‘sex’ and not ‘gender’ shall be used” in agency documents, and that “the policy of the United States is that an individual’s sex is not changeable.”

In addition to passports, the State Department said it will no longer issue birth records with the “X” gender identification for U.S. citizens with children born abroad, according to the network.

It wasn’t immediately clear if already-issued passports that use “X” under the gender option will remain valid. A State Department spokesperson told NBC updates would be shared as soon as possible on the department's travel website.

The State Department has offered the option of “X” under gender for years in addition to “male” and “female” options. In 2022, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) similarly began offering a new gender option on applications for its popular TSA PreCheck program, allowing travelers to select “another gender” in addition to «male» or «female.”

A TSA website offering information about applying for TSA PreCheck with a non-binary gender option has been taken down, but still appears in a Google search result.