by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 8:50 AM ET, Tue February 11, 2025
Seven people have filed a federal lawsuit against Donald Trump over the State Department’s new sex designations, which no longer allows nonbinary or intersex travelers to use the gender designation “X” and requires all passport holders to define their sex as it was at conception, in accordance with an executive order by President Trump.
The lawsuit, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, has been filed by individuals impacted by this new change, including social media influencer Zaya Perysian, and have been unable to receive passports with information that matches who they are.
The lawsuit argues the new passport policy violates the Administrative Procedures Act and is unconstitutional. It also argues it violates impacted traveler’s rights under the Due Process Clause of the constitution by restricting their free movement, as well as the Equal Protection Clause because it discriminates on the basis of sex. Lastly, the lawsuit argues the executive order violates their First Amendment rights.
“I’ve lived virtually my entire adult life as a man. Everyone in my personal and professional life knows me as a man, and any stranger on the street who encountered me would view me as a man,” said Reid Solomon-Lane of North Adams, Massachusetts. “I thought that 18 years after transitioning, I would be able to live my life in safety and ease. Now, as a married father of three, Trump’s executive order and the ensuing passport policy have threatened that life of safety and ease. If my passport were to reflect a sex designation that is inconsistent with who I am, I would be forcibly outed every time I used my passport for travel or identification, causing potential risk to my safety and my family’s safety.”
Trump’s executive order, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” requires that government-issued identification reflect “sex at conception.”
In response, the State Department began holding some passports and other documents submitted by transgender, intersex and nonbinary people. Some have had their applications outright rejected, or have received their new passports with their sex assigned at birth.
According to the State Department’s notice on the change, those who currently hold a passport marked with an ‘X’ or have their gender as something other than what it was at birth will be able to hold that passport as long as it is valid. The change will be necessary for all new passports renewed in the future.
The ACLU has been contacted by over 1,500 transgender people or their family members about the issue.
"The new passport policy violates both procedural laws and the U.S. Constitution. This new policy denies transgender, intersex and nonbinary people equal protection under the law. It classifies individuals based on sex – an unscientific and incorrect definition of sex – and does so without any legitimate government objective," explains Arli Christian, Senior Policy Counsel in the ACLU's National Political Advocacy Department. "This sex classification harms transgender, intersex and nonbinary people, who do not conform to the government’s misguided definition of sex, and exposes them to harassment, discrimination, and violence. The policy also violates transgender, intersex and nonbinary people’s constitutional right to informational privacy, by compelling them to disclose information that will invite harassment, bodily harm, and reveal intimate information."
"Procedurally, under the Administrative Procedure Act the government is required to give reasoned explanations of why they are taking certain actions, particularly when they are doing an about-face from prior policies. The United States has allowed individuals to update the sex designation on their passports for more than 30 years, and still the government has provided no reasoned justifications for reversal."
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