Rubio Halts ‘X’ Gender Markers On Passports After Trump Order

New U.S. passports with the gender-neutral marker “X” will be paused after an executive order from President Donald Trump.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has directed the State Department to freeze passport applications that request “X” to be marked for gender. Under the new policy, passports already issued with “X” as the gender will still be valid.

The move comes after Trump’s day one executive order to officially “recognize two sexes, male and female,” and defined a woman as an “adult human female.” The order reversed the policy of allowing people to change their sex on passports and personnel records.

Since 2010, Americans have been allowed to change their sex on their passports. Initially, the change required forms showing a physician’s approval, but in 2021, then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken scrapped that requirement. In 2022, he added the “X” gender marker, a change announced on Transgender Day of Visibility.

“My Administration will defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male,” the president’s order reads.

Trump’s order also attempts to ban housing men in women’s prisons, as well as taxpayer-funded medical gender transitions for federal prisoners. This move is likely to be challenged in court by liberal opponents. The order aims to protect women’s privacy in migrant shelters and rape shelters.

Federal funds are prohibited from promoting gender ideology under the order, which also includes protections for Americans’ First Amendment rights not to use preferred pronouns in the workplace and public schools.

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Gender ideology became a flashpoint during the election, especially as parents across the country sounded the alarm on child medical gender transitions and controversial lessons around the topic in public schools.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris also attracted negative attention on the issue after the Trump campaign released wildly successful television ads highlighting her support of far-Left policies, including taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries for illegal migrants and federal prisoners.

“Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you,” one ad’s narrator said.

Rubio was unanimously confirmed as Secretary of State by the U.S. Senate on Monday, making him the first confirmed Cabinet member of the second Trump administration. He was sworn in on Tuesday.

“There will be changes,” Rubio said at his swearing-in ceremony. “But the changes are not meant to be destructive. They’re not meant to be punitive.”

The State Department must move at the “speed of relevancy,” Rubio said.