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Topics: US News, Donald Trump, LGBTQ, Politics, Travel
Britt Jones
Topics: US News, Donald Trump, LGBTQ, Politics, Travel
A significant update has been announced after Donald Trump signed a controversial executive order which sees a number of passports banned in the US.
Another day, another Tump update - and this one is just as you’d expect.
Trump has been on a mission since his inauguration on January 20, and ever since he stepped foot back in the White House, he signed around 200 executive orders right off the bat.
While his changes focused on climate change and immigration, others were set on the LGBTQ+ community.
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One of those orders was titled 'Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government'.
This is the two gendered (male and female) order which states that trans identities and non-binary identities will not be recognised in the law.
As well as affecting the prison system, for which transgender women will no longer be housed in female prisons, it also affects non-binary people's passports.
A little background on this.
As per the Joe Biden administration, any non-binary person and those who wished to put 'X' as their gender on their passports were able to do so, and this took effect in in October 2021.
However, those X passports and their applications have been frozen in light of the executive order.
In an email obtained by The Guardian, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said to employees: "The policy of the United States is that an individual’s sex is not changeable."
He shared that anything from passports to consular report of birth abroad documents should adhere to using sex and not gender.
As this initially happened in January, you’re probably wondering what the update is.
Here it is, folks:
The ban has been blocked by a federal judge.
US District Judge, Julia Kobick said, as per the Independent: “The Executive Order and the Passport Policy on their face classify passport applicants on the basis of sex and thus must be reviewed under intermediate judicial scrutiny.
“That standard requires the government to demonstrate that its actions are substantially related to an important governmental interest. The government has failed to meet this standard.”
Kobick also said the plaintiffs have shown that they would succeed in demonstrating that the new passport policy and executive order ‘are based on irrational prejudice toward transgender Americans and therefore offend our Nation’s constitutional commitment to equal protection for all Americans.’
Prior to this, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued the Trump Administration on behalf of five transgender Americans and two non-binary persons after claiming that the policy would mean that those affected would not be able to apply for an accurate passport.
Lawyer for the ACLU, Sruti Swaminathan said: “We all have a right to accurate identity documents, and this policy invites harassment, discrimination, and violence against transgender Americans who can no longer obtain or renew a passport that matches who they are.”
However, the Trump administration hit back, stating that the new policy ‘does not violate the equal protection guarantees of the Constitution’ and that the plaintiffs of the case would not be harmed by the gender changes as they could still apply for a passport and can travel freely. They would simply be unable to use the X and gender markers and would have to use biological sex markers instead.