Marco Rubio orders state department to stop issuing ‘X’ marker passports to non-binary people
Secretary of state Marc Rubio has ordered that ‘sex is not changeable’ in email. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered the state department to stop passport applications with “X” markers, which are used by many trans and non-binary citizens.
Rubio, who previously said voting on a bill to protect same-sex marriage was a “stupid waste of time”, informed department staff of the change on Thursday (23 January).
The policy, which will affect current and future passport applications, follows Trump signing an anti-trans executive order that proclaims the US recognises only two sexes: Male and female.
An email seen by The Guardian, reads: “The policy of the United States is that an individual’s sex is not changeable.”
Rubio ordered the department to “suspend any application requesting an X sex marker” and to “suspend any application where the applicant is seeking to change their sex marker” from the definition provided in the executive order.
Passports with “X” markers are still valid, but renewals could see issues arise.
The anti-trans legislation, which carried the bombastic title: “DEFENDING WOMEN FROM GENDER IDEOLOGY EXTREMISM AND RESTORING BIOLOGICAL TRUTH TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT,” required that IDs, including passports and visas, must show a person’s biological sex as “either male or female.”
The legislation also states: “‘Female’ means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell. ‘Male’ means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.”
However, United States Representative Sarah McBride, who is trans, pointed out a fatal flaw in this phrasing.
Embryos with an XY genotype will develop biologically male traits linked to the Y chromosome at around six weeks. Before that point, human embryos only have biologically female traits linked to the X chromosome. In fact, genitalia at conception is “phenotypically female”, as the National Library of Medicine notes.
McBride, who is the first out trans congresswoman, quipped to The Independent that Trump “just declared everyone a woman from conception based on the language of the executive order.”
The Williams Institute at UCLA’s School of Law estimated that around 16,700 non-binary people request a passport using an X gender marker each year. This represents 1.4 per cent of the non-binary population in the US, which the institute estimates is around 1.2 million adults in the country.
Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.
How did this story make you feel?
