Rating: Transsupportive, Gender Menace, March 2, 2025 (PDF archive) (HTML archive) (Take Action)
Action Recommendations
- Respond to the Request for Comment in the Federal Register with your own comments or comments based on the draft comments below.
See Also
Content Summary
I oppose the proposed change in passport requirements and forms in response to an ill-advised executive order as described here:
“To comply with E.O. 14168, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” the Department updated the form to replace the term “gender” with “sex.” The U.S. Passport conforms with the standards set by the E.O. and the International Civil Aviation Organization, which among other things determine the various fields on the passport’s biographical data page. Consistent with the E.O., the revised DS-11 will request the applicant’s biological sex at birth, male “M” or female “F.” Amendments to the fields and instructions (section 3) have been made to reflect this.”
First of all, there are ongoing legal challenges to the executive order, so no change to the passport requirements or forms should be made at least until those challenges are resolved.
The executive order was not a legislative action, so does not carry the same weight. The next administration may switch the requirements back.
The trend worldwide has been for more countries and regions to add a non-binary gender marker. The following countries already recognize a non-binary gender marker: Iceland, Canada, Germany, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, The Netherlands, Columbia, India, New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina, Denmark, Malta, Australia, Mexico, and Belgium with more to come. This regressive move by the U.S. government would buck the trend. It gives the impression of a U.S. not in pursuit of “life, liberty, and happiness” but in pursuit of “death, repression, and sorrow”.
People who do not fit into rigid gender roles of “man” and “woman” have existed since the beginning of human evolution. To deny this is to deny basic science. To deny this is to succumb to a current repressive trend in U.S. politics with which a large portion of society does not agree. For a slim majority to force their fundamentalist religious beliefs on the rest of society is not consistent with the separation of church and state, a founding principle of this nation.
Removing the ability for people to request identity documents that better reflect their gender identity is a basic human right. If the U.S. State Department is not able to continue providing a non-binary gender marker, then perhaps it should remove the gender marker from passports entirely.
Continued government repression of intersex, non-binary, transgender, and other gender-expansive people results in significant harm by denying basic identity and modeling inappropriate behaviors such as denial of employment, housing, education, and particularly in this case the ability to travel to visit family or just to explore and enjoy the world as U.S. citizen with dignity and without facing harassment, invasive search, and/or violence. Not only intersex, non-binary, transgender, and other gender-expansive people face these harms, since “gender critical” zealots often mis-identify people according to their stereotypes of gender identity, causing harm to anyone who appears different than whatever some random person considers other than the “man” or “woman” norm. Such harassment and violence can lead to mental health issues among affected populations, in some cases leading even to suicide.
Even this proposal has caused considerable concern among those of U.S. holding passports with the non-binary gender marker. We are concerned that the government may seize our travel documents and prevent our travel. We are concerned that we may not be able to renew our travel documents when they expire. This generates fully justified anxiety and concern over the government’s actions which have no reasonable justification.
Please do not remove the non-binary gender marker from U.S. passports.
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