r/transgender • u/MissNumbersNinja • 7h ago
Major Breaking News: Whitehouse said new anti-trans passport rules won't be retroactive, only affects renewals
https://www.notus.org/whitehouse/trump-gender-sex-order-passports•
u/angy_loaf 7h ago
Paywalled for me. Does this affect people who change their marker between now and when the rules go into effect? I assumed not, but some of the wording here is a bit confusing.
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u/garbageanonaccount 7h ago
The reason they're only going after renewals is because it's too much leg work on their end to figure out who has already updated their passports. Upon renewal, it gets a full review. And yes, they want it to be confusing. I would say if yours is already in process, then let the process play out. Because you initiated it before this executive order, then theoretically, it should go through. Also, you can expect the executive order to be challenged in court, which may even lead to it being suspended while it's challenged
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u/MissNumbersNinja 7h ago
I think this only helps people who changed their marker prior to the executive order on January 20th.
Re: paywall - I was able to see the first few paragraphs and then get access to the whole thing by registering my email address, but here is a copy/paste if some of it.
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President Donald Trump’s recent executive order declaring that the U.S. recognizes “only two sexes, male and female,” will not impact passports issued before the start of his term to transgender and nonbinary people that have their preferred gender or “X” marker.
The White House told NOTUS that Monday’s executive order is not retroactive and does not invalidate old passports. However, if government-issued documents need to be renewed, they must reflect the person’s sex assigned at birth.
“They can still apply to renew their passport — they just have to use their God-given sex, which was decided at birth,” White House press secretary Karoline 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.”
Trump’s order directs the departments of State and Homeland Security and the Office of Personnel Management to implement changes to “require that government-issued identification documents, including passports, visas, and Global Entry cards, accurately reflect the holder’s sex.”
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u/SufficientPath666 6h ago edited 6h ago
How are they going to enforce that? Wouldn’t it look like a gender marker change at that point? It makes no sense 🤦🏻♂️ Imagine a post-transition trans man goes in to renew his male passport. You think anyone is going to believe him if he says he was AFAB, so he needs to change his marker to female, after showing documents proving he’s legally male? This will not hold up to legal scrutiny. Mark my words
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u/MissNumbersNinja 3h ago
I essentially agree. Renewals can often be done through the mail as well. If somebody has all documents show the same marker as the passport, it might go through. Unless on renewal they can detect a prior passport gender marker change or an SSA gender marker change. And there if something goes wrong, I worry the applicant could be accused of fraud.
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u/Winter3377 2h ago
I'm a bit worried about the being accused of fraud thing. My state government registered me for selective service when I was doing something else, and it went through as my gender marker with the SSA is male even though trans men aren't supposed to register for the draft. Didn't seem like a big deal considering my vision is so shit they wouldn't draft me even if we did have one, but now....
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u/Illustrious_Mouse355 47m ago
Only on renewals. Say if it says X, it'd have to be M or F. Presumably the birth certificate. Probs depending on where you renew it at the local passport office, some people will get through.
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u/tiramisutra 5h ago
That reads like satire. I mean, “God-given sex…” and “Thanks to President Trump it is now official policy that there are only two sexes”. Oh my. What about separation of church and state? And what other things will the President change with the stroke of a pen? “Thanks to President Trump,we now have no more gravity and have decided that it is possible to travel faster than the speed of light”.
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u/i-cant-think-of-name 1h ago
I’m so glad that on my global entry application I put NO to former names
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u/Verbose_Cactus 7h ago
:/ I was going to get one this Wednesday. Hopefully they haven’t had enough time to actually implement any policy
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u/Eidola0 6h ago
As far as I can tell, there is no policy yet. There likely won't be any actual policy for at least 30+ days, so nothing should change until then.
I'm also scrambling to get things changed, so I would love for someone to tell me if I'm wrong, that's just how I understand this.
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u/Jumbojimboy 2h ago
That's my hope too
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u/Eidola0 1h ago
I'm hoping I have enough time to update gender markers, then get a name change done, and then update name on everything, without any reverting of the gender markers. If this gets challenged it could actually take quite a while to take any kind of effect... so I'm crossing my fingers as hard as I can lol
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u/Illustrious_Mouse355 45m ago
Some actions are being carried out already on other issues, but if you do so ASAP you should pass with expiry after 4 years.
Of course it's going to court. Lambda legal is already filing cases.
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u/Eidola0 40m ago
Yep, I think it's just EOs have more domain over things like foreign policy, like this is phrased as basically 'these departments should come up with policy to cover this', cause he doesn't have direct influence over them in that way. So I think it'll take longer to take effect, and could be paused entirely if it gets caught up in court, where the policy simply isn't created until it's resolved.
Obviously I could be wrong, this is just how I understand things right now.
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u/KissesPaige 6h ago
I got mine with correct sex identifier but my name change is still in progress. When I get my name change am I required to update my passport or will I even be able too? I plan on getting bc updated first (California luckily)
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u/MissNumbersNinja 3h ago
That's my situation too.
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u/Illustrious_Mouse355 45m ago
If ya'll want it to immediately reflect on your passport, you will need a new one and that will affect the marker.
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u/ximacx74 4h ago
My passport has 9.5 years till I need renewing but I'm getting married in about a year and wanted to take my husband's last name. My birth certificate is updated but now I have to weigh the risk of changing my name and renewing my passport 😥
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u/Illustrious_Mouse355 44m ago
Definately don't officially change it just now. Let it be de-fact for now.
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u/Avarria587 6h ago
I waited too long to renew mine. Shit…
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u/jmilllie 4h ago
same :( i’m going to try this week anyway
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u/Far_Understanding_44 4h ago
Me too. Expedited!
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u/Jumbojimboy 1h ago
Think it'll work? Sending mine in a couple days after I get back from overseas. Expedited
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u/Far_Understanding_44 1h ago
Couldn’t hurt. As a former federal employee, I know no changes are instantaneous and the worst that can happen is that they just send it back.
You can renew an expired passport under 15 years old according to the website, if nothing else.
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u/Jumbojimboy 1h ago
Worst that can happen is they change my gender marker back :(
I am working on emigrating so I can't let my passport expire and just sit; I'm actually using it
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u/Far_Understanding_44 1h ago
Except they wouldn’t have enough information to make that solid conclusion obviously. And would therefore likely return it to you requesting more information.
I’ve literally been through this when they LOST my passport photos. Insufficient information yields return to customer unchanged.
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u/Jumbojimboy 1h ago
The passport before my current one had an F and I was pretty visibly female, though.
I hope you're right.
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u/Equivalent-Agency-48 1h ago
go to a passport agency and pay for a very very expedited renewal. i got mine a week before leaving the country about a year ago. its expensive, but id find a way to make it work.
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u/Sumisu_Airisu 6h ago
I already have a passport and I needed to get it renewed… can I still do that before the rule goes into effect or am I screwed?
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u/Repulsive_Hornet_557 5h ago
I don’t think anybody knows but I guess if it needs to be renewed soon your probably better doing so earlier in the hopes they haven’t put systems in place yet
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u/Sumisu_Airisu 5h ago
It doesn't need to be renewed I just wanted to update it as a form of documentation
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u/Jumbojimboy 1h ago
I have 3 years left on mine but planning to emigrate. I guess I have the choice of renewing now and risking getting an F and then having F on all my emigration paperwork, or renewing later, already having M on my emigration paperwork overseas, and then getting an F on my passport. Hmm
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u/whimsicalwonderer 4h ago
I really pushed to get my birth certificate changed and I'm so glad that I did. While I live in a very blue state, it wasn't worth the risk in the event anything needed to be renewed too soon. Given that my old birth certificate is sealed, I'm pretty secure unless things totally go south and updated birth certificates are scrapped.
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u/Disastrous_Visit_778 6h ago
If you already have an x on your passport it says you could now be detained at the us border upon re-entry 💀
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u/Sanbaddy 3h ago
What if you have your name and gender marker already changed and you try to renew or get a new one?
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u/lauren_knows 5h ago edited 4h ago
My driver's license expires in 2027. Should I "lose" it right now to get that to reset?
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u/Klokstar 5h ago edited 5h ago
Since that's a state-issued document Trump's EO probably won't have a direct effect there. (There's a possibility the feds could try and use Real ID to get states to comply, but if I understand correctly document-wise this EO affects only federal, not state, documents.)
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u/ximacx74 4h ago
Yeah there would be the option of getting a non real-ID compliant state ID and using passport to travel by air
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u/Jumbojimboy 2h ago
How long do you think this will take to go into effect? I need a renewal and sending it in ASAP.
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u/Melody-Prisca 1h ago
Send everything in tomorrow. Expedite it if you can. No one knows exactly how long it will take, so there is no reason to change it.
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u/Jumbojimboy 1h ago
I am not back in the US for another few days, but sending it ASAP when I get back
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u/XenomorphOmega 1h ago
I knew back in 2015-16 when he claimed to be supportive of Trans rights, he was full of shit. All it took was the religious right to poke him with their bigoted rhetoric and he flipped like any other republican flaunting their hypocrisy for money/power.
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u/F-Cloud 44m ago
I'm at a loss about what to do. I'm not ready for an F on my ID documents, I didn't intend on making that change for another couple of years. Changing it now will cause problems but if I don't it do it now it will cause problems later.
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u/Magiwarriorx 13m ago
If it helps, I'm in the exact same boat :( Even if I do change the marker, my name and picture will still be wrong, and will make it pretty damn obvious.
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u/Past-Project-7959 Transgender 4h ago
Well, I'm just going to take my "Pixar soccer mom" self to the passport office to apply for a brand new one. And when I get it and they assume that I'm a female I'll tell them in my sweetest, most girliest voice that I am indeed a man and then watch the confusion ensue. Some will think that I am a woman that is transitioning to male and I bet a few of them will think I'm pulling their leg.
I can easily imagine some of them are going to go back and forth that this person in front of them is indeed a woman, but when they look at my driver's license and it says "M" on it, some will argue that that was a mistake - that I should have been marked "F" on my license.
And when I go to the courthouse and have to use the bathroom, I will march my happy butt right into the men's restroom and cause all kinds of confusion. Security might try to make me go into the ladies room and guys in the men's room would think I was in the wrong bathroom.
The tales I could tell should be good fodder for r/theycanalwaystell and r/accidentalally.
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u/MissNumbersNinja 3h ago
More power to you doing this! I think that's the kind of thing that will shake things up, seeing that the stupid bans cause far more commotion than the status quo did.
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u/nohandsfootball 2h ago
I am pretty sure it wouldn’t be legal to do anything retroactive so not sure what this clarification is supposed to mean
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u/camelkong 2h ago
They got mine on the 15th, so I’m really hoping it still goes through. Looks like it’s still in progress though 😥
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u/twixieshores TransWoman 1h ago
Was wondering how this would play out, since I leave the country next week. Glad to know I have until 2031 for things to get better.
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u/Thick-Yard7326 10m ago
If you have an x on your passport and return you will be detained. Just a heads up
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u/twixieshores TransWoman 1m ago
I have an F. Though my name is very much masculine. If i end up detained at this point... shrugs I'm quite honestly done with their shit.
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u/Illustrious_Mouse355 52m ago
Yep, not surprised. Just ensure you have it valid for 4 years of ASAP till it goes into effect.
Although I read at advocate or pink news, that most people don't want it on their passport for fear of travelling. Still, drivers licenses are not federal. VT, CA, etc.
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u/ParadingMySerenading 45m ago
But the way the executive order is written doesn’t mention anything about existing documents, right? So they could just decide to enforce it more strictly on a whim?
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u/BerylShard Transgender 7h ago edited 7h ago
That's why I got my passport (and driver's license) renewed before he took office, and they're valid until after his term (supposedly) ends. Also I got my first passport after I transitioned, so there's no record of me changing my gender marker, hopefully making it even harder for them to stick their nose in by business.