A deal on US access to Ukraine’s coveted minerals and rare earths is still on the cards, both Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this week, despite the continued deterioration in the US-Ukraine relationship.
13.02.2025 - 22:13 / cntraveler.com / Donald Trump / Trump
On January 20, 2025, the US Department of State stopped processing passport applications and issuing new passports with the marker X, which denotes unspecified or other gender identities, as well as passports with gender markers that do not match the applicant’s sex assigned at birth.
The move followed President Donald Trump’s same-day executive order “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” which states “It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female.”
The Department of State first began issuing passports with X markers in 2022, after announcing the year prior that applicants could self-select their gender marker (M for male, F for female, or X) without needing to provide additional medical documentation. The new policy revokes applicants’ ability to self-certify their gender when the selection does not match the sex stated on other identity documents.
As of January 21 the State Department will only process M (male) or F (female) markers on new passport applications according to the sex reported on an applicants’ supporting documents such as a previous passport, a driver’s license, or a birth certificate (the full list can be found on the department’s page) and records on previously held passports. The new policy also applies to markers on Consular Reports of Birth Abroad, visas, and Global Entry Cards.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says it has been contacted by more than 1,500 people worried about being able to get accurate passports as a result of the new policies. Among them is Reid Solomon-Lane, a flight attendant from Massachusetts and married father of three.
“I’ve lived virtually my entire adult life as a man,” Solomon-Lane said in a statement to the ACLU. "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. 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.”
Below, we’ve gathered the latest information and advice from the US government and legal experts on how transgender and genderqueer travelers can navigate the policy reversals of gender self-selection on US passport applications. The latest guidance from the State Department can be found on their website.
If you currently hold a US passport with the gender marker X, you still possess the full privileges of your passport until its expiration date. “US passports previously issued with an X marker will remain valid for travel until their expiration date,” a spokesperson
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