LGBTQ+ advocates expect President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring there are only “two sexes, male and female,” to have sweeping effects across federal agencies and on the lives of transgender people.
Within hours of taking office, Trump signed a broad order urging federal agencies to revoke policies issued under Joe Biden that made it easier for trans people to update the gender marker on passports and other federal documents. It directs the State Department and Department of Homeland Security to require “government-issued identification documents, including passports, visas, and Global Entry cards, accurately reflect the holder’s sex.”
The Trump administration defines sex by the reproductive cells a person will produce upon reaching adulthood. This narrow definition, which ignores how biology experts understand sex, mirrors definitions used in state-level legislation that has barred transgender people from updating driver’s licenses, birth certificates, and state IDs.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told NOTUS on Tuesday that the order will not impact passports that were issued prior to Trump taking office.
But Leavitt said passports issued in the future, including those being renewed, will show the gender marker that reflects a person’s sex assigned at birth.
“They just have to use their God-given sex, which was decided at birth,” Leavitt said. “Thanks to President Trump, it is now the official policy of the federal government that there are only two sexes — male and female.”
It’s too early to tell how the order will impact applications from people currently seeking to update their gender marker on federal documents.
“I don’t think we know the answer to what will happen with pending applications, or how safe it is to travel. I think that a document that the United States government issued that was valid at the time of issuance is still valid,” Chase Strangio, a senior attorney at the ACLU, told reporters at a press briefing on Tuesday. “If they try to suggest otherwise, that raises questions and we are looking out for that.”
The State Department did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
The executive order requires Trump’s assistant for legislative affairs to hand him a bill to codify these definitions within 30 days, though LGBTQ+ advocates are unsure whether or how this will happen.
Still, the order has already caused widespread panic and confusion within trans communities.
Los Angeles-based artist Page Greene was set to travel to Mexico next week to perform at a queer music and art festival. But when Trump announced his executive order, Greene began to reconsider her trip. She has updated her photo and gender marker on her passport, but the document still reflects her deadname, as she’s still waiting for her legal name change to go through next month.
Greene is concerned that travelling as a trans woman in light of this executive order may cause her trouble with customs. A lawyer, who was not identified, told NBC News that trans people, especially those with an X gender marker on their passports, should be cautious while traveling, as they could be detained by border agents.
“I’m not trying to be detained,” Greene said. “And I can’t afford to potentially lose work.”
Greene said she reached out to the State Department to ask if she would be allowed back into the country with her passport and didn’t receive a reassuring answer.
“I’ve been calling the State Department every day and they said, ‘We have no information for you, but we cannot guarantee that you will be admitted back into the country.’”
LGBTQ+ advocates at the ACLU and Lambda Legal urge trans people to bring any issues they have with currently valid passports to their attention.
Beyond passports, the order takes broad and vague aim at various policies regarding trans people, including calling for trans women to be housed with men in federal prisons and ending any gender-affirming care for incarcerated trans people.
The order also calls to cut federal funds from promoting “gender ideology,” which it defines essentially as the belief in the existence of transgender people and identity.
Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, senior counsel and health care strategist at Lambda Legal, said the order signals “an abandonment by this administration with regards to enforcement of civil rights protections for transgender people.”
“While this order is not necessarily immediately effective, it creates an indication of where this administration is headed and a preview of where its priorities lie,” he added.