A FEDERAL US judge has ordered the Trump administration to resume issuing passports to transgender Americans with “X” as their gender designation, a practice suspended since Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Following Trump’s executive order in January, the State Department said it would only recognise two genders – male and female – ending official policies that recognised a third gender, denoted by an X on US passports.

The move prompted Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs to update its advice for transgender people planning to travel to the US. 

It advised travellers who have an X marker on their passport or whose sex on their passport differs from sex assigned at birth to contact the US Embassy in Dublin “for further details on specific entry requirements”. 

In April, US District Judge Julia Kobick in Boston issued a preliminary injunction against that policy, but that ruling applied only to six transgender and non-binary people who had sued the government over the passport policy.

The State Department appealed that move Friday.

On Tuesday, Kobick went further in her ruling by extending it to all transgender and non-binary Americans affected by the policy change and ordered the State Department to resume issuing these passports pending a judgment on the merits of the case or a decision by a higher court.

The State Department first issued such a passport in October 2021 under President Joe Biden, with the X gender marker reserved for non-binary, intersex, and gender non-conforming individuals.

In his inauguration speech at the US Capitol, Trump said “as of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.”

The US State Department’s website states: “We will only issue passports with an M or F sex marker that match the customer’s biological sex at birth.”

It states that anyone who submits a passport application requesting an X marker may experience delays in getting their passport or receive a request for more information.

“We will issue you a new passport that matches your biological sex at birth, based on your supporting documents and our records about your previous passports.”

In February, US actress Hunter Schafer, who is trans, shared on social media that the gender marker on her new passport was changed to male despite submitting identity documents marked female. 

With reporting from © AFP 2025