Major legal decision has just thrown a wrench into one of Donald Trump’s most talked-about executive orders — a move that would have effectively banned non-binary gender markers on U.S. passports.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has wasted no time rolling out sweeping policy changes. In just the first days of his term, he signed nearly 200 executive orders, touching everything from climate policy to immigration. But one of the most contentious orders focused squarely on gender identity — and it’s now facing a serious legal roadblock.
Under the executive order titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”, Trump’s administration attempted to eliminate legal recognition of trans and non-binary identities. The order asserted there are only two sexes — male and female — and applied that definition across federal policies.
One major target? U.S. passports.
The Biden administration had made strides in allowing non-binary and trans individuals to list “X” as their gender marker on official documents, a policy that took effect in 2021. But Trump’s order froze all applications for those gender-neutral passports and directed federal agencies to rely strictly on biological sex — not gender identity.
In internal communications obtained by The Guardian, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told staff, “The policy of the United States is that an individual’s sex is not changeable.” He further instructed that all passport and birth documentation reflect sex at birth, not gender identity.
That directive sparked immediate backlash and led to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU on behalf of five transgender and two non-binary Americans, who argued the policy would prevent them from accessing accurate identification — opening the door to discrimination and harassment.
Now, in a pivotal decision, U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick has blocked the order. In her ruling, she stated that the passport policy discriminates based on sex and must meet a higher standard of judicial scrutiny — a bar the government failed to clear.
Kobick went further, noting that the plaintiffs demonstrated the policy was “based on irrational prejudice toward transgender Americans” and violated the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.
While the Trump administration insists that individuals can still apply for passports using binary gender markers, critics argue that stripping the option to list a true identity does real harm. As ACLU lawyer Sruti Swaminathan put it, “We all have a right to accurate identity documents, and this policy invites harassment, discrimination, and violence.”
The court’s intervention marks a significant development in the ongoing legal and cultural battle over gender identity in the United States — and could set the stage for further challenges to Trump’s broader policy agenda.
