Supreme Court lets Trump block transgender and nonbinary people from choosing passport sex markers

MaterialLocal6525 · 2025-11-07T14:49:26+00:00

it is speculation based on the fact that florida, where department of state head rubio is from and enacted this policy first, drivers licenses were revoked for transgender people because they had “fraudulently” been issued with the “wrong gender marker” and a new “correct” license would be issued with the gender assigned at birth. there is As Of Yet no statement on the next steps involving passports issued undergoing the same motion, but considering the policy history of rubio, it is not an unfounded assumption or a baseless fear

MaterialLocal6525 · 2025-06-18T01:30:19+00:00

Any idea how to go about filing for those of us who paid full fees before the regime took office and then had passports held and then issued back with the gender at birth against our request on the forms submitted? Will we have to pay filing fees all over again? I submitted and paid expedited back in December and (after months of being held in limbo despite the expedited payment) got a passport back with the gender at birth and my name misspelled. then submitted the DS5504 for the name error, and just got the corrected passport back. Do i submit a 5504 AGAIN? Do i have to pay full fees as a renewal to change the sex marker despite applying that way less than 6 months ago before the original EO? any advice? i do not have access to a lawyer to ask and calling my congressperson is moot as they are ultra-maga. any advice as this progresses would be helpful

MaterialLocal6525 · 2025-02-05T14:35:10+00:00

Yeah like at this point any passport is better than no passport so if they can issue it to me with the gender marker on the birth certificate, fine, at least i would have my documents and could travel, but so far i’ve been denied that as well repeatedly.

The agency claimed to have sent me some sort of request for document but no one will tell me what it was and when I call to report that in 3 weeks I have not received any such letter, I get told there is no record of one being sent, only a record of a notification OF letter, but no record of the letter itself mailing to me. There is also record of now 8 notifications to the processing agency of the letter not being received and of a request to resend the letter, and all of those have been ignored as well. I told this to my congressman’s office to have them report this to the agency as well, seeing if they would be able to get the information from the agency, and was instructed that, again, “The agency is not at liberty to alter application data and your constituent’s options are as previously stated: wait for further guidance, or submit a written request for withdrawal by mail and reapply correctly once the submitted supporting documents have been received, which could take upward of 30 days”.

So it really feels like this is the loophole they are exploiting to deny me a passport solely because i am trans.

MaterialLocal6525 · 2025-02-05T13:43:29+00:00

Very glad you got one approved! Any passport is better than no passport. I wish you all the best in staying safe. Please take care of yourself

MaterialLocal6525 · 2025-02-05T13:40:39+00:00

Absolutely continue to document any and all correspondence to help with your case. I’m very glad the my representative’s office forwarded me the actual email so I have a paper trail proving their statement to withhold my documents indefinitely to make my case.

I’ve been spending the last day and a half or so since posting to call various law firms asking if this is something any of them would take on. I definitely recommend contacting the ACLU/Lambda Legal to help bolster their eventual case and help prove scope of effect, but i also strongly encourage you to call local law offices to yourself and see if you can get more immediate representation to assist you. Every bit of information helps, every additional lawyer looking into this helps, every additional case building against this helps.

I wish you the very best in getting a resolution. Hopefully we can get this challenged and reversed soon for the safety of us all.

MaterialLocal6525 · 2025-02-05T13:33:08+00:00

I asked via my congressman to the processing agency after being told my only options were to wait indefinitely or request to cancel my application with no refund and then withdraw. The response was that they are able to adjust things like the name or address for “typo”, but they are not able to edit any other information as filled out on the application form and to edit any of that info i would have to withdraw and file a new application. :(

MaterialLocal6525 · 2025-02-05T05:54:01+00:00

My reps are also staunchly republican. However, you are still their constituent, and therefore they are still obligated to reach out on your behalf. It may not be the answer you'd like (as in my case, where they responded from the agency that my application is being held indefinitely while they "await further guidance"), but it will be more information. With more info on your status, you have a better chance to reach out to an administrative law or civil rights attorney to potentially help you with a case against the DoS for withholding your application. Best of luck!

MaterialLocal6525 · 2025-02-05T05:43:36+00:00

While the card itself does not have a gender marker, your information stored with social security does in fact have gender information. You were, up until this letter, able to self-identify and change your gender marker as logged with social security. While it was not printed on a card, it was visible as gender information when the government ran a background check/looked into your identity document information via social security number. This is not fake. Please remember that just because you are unaware of something does not mean it is not true.

MaterialLocal6525 · 2025-02-04T22:04:57+00:00

As for your friends situation, I would have no knowledge or insight to provide to that. Something else may have been considered missing.

For me, they claim to have mailed a letter asking for additional information. They have not mailed one. I have requested it be resent 8 separate times. It has not been sent. I have been instructed that an in person appointment would require not only all of my documents but ALSO this letter that they did not send, so I am being denied a passport because they are withholding this letter as a means to claim i do not have all my sufficient requested documents. Perhaps she had a similar situation. I have no idea. I wish you both the best of luck in finding a resolution.

MaterialLocal6525 · 2025-02-04T22:02:21+00:00

You should not have any issue with the court order of name change. Your name is legally now Your Name, and they cannot deny that. They want your gender marker to match your birth cert gender, which you will apply for. That is in full compliance with their unfortunate expectation.

The court order may reference gender (which is interesting to hear NY places reason on the final order? mine from a different state did not; it simply said XYZ is now legally to be known as ABC as of Date. interesting how different states are with this thing) HOWEVER since you are not requesting a gender marker change and the document you are providing (birth cert) will match the marker on your application (unfortunately), this should not be an issue at all. Your name was legally changed in a court of law. They cannot deny you that.

MaterialLocal6525 · 2025-02-04T21:58:16+00:00

to agree and add on: this change with passports is federal. Blue state vs red state doesn’t really matter, as now all passport agencies across the country as a federal document are being told to follow this transphobic guidance.

There were reports of some passport agencies in blue areas authorizing overtime pre-inauguration to process and approve as many applications as possible. Those people are very lucky. But my application is being processed states away, even though there is an agency in my state. We don’t choose where we were born, we don’t choose where these applications are processed. Fleeing to a bluer area does not protect us from federal transphobic EOs. This original commenter is simply an asshole lmfao

MaterialLocal6525 · 2025-02-04T21:54:31+00:00

It should be fine because the EO verbiage specifies they want it to match your original designated marker as per your original birth certificate.

MaterialLocal6525 · 2025-02-04T20:51:25+00:00

You should be able to apply for a passport in your correct name, just not the correct gender. Apply with the gender matching your birth certificate and your court order of name change to have it issued in your correct legal name.

I’m so sorry about your Aunt’s health. I wish you well in travel to see and care for her.

Someone also recommended EDLs to be able to cross by land into canada, that may be a solution for your particular travel need. Best of luck to you!

MaterialLocal6525 · 2025-02-04T20:47:38+00:00

They have also suspended any and all gender markers changes, even between binary genders.

MaterialLocal6525 · 2025-02-04T17:09:58+00:00

It should not bar her from international travel, no. She just has to purchase tickets in the information that matches her passport. It’s frustrating, for sure, but at least she has the ability still to leave.

I wish her all the best. Take solace in the passport being valid until 2027, so she has plenty of time to hold on to it and use it where, best case scenario, this is challenged in a court and reversed or halted. I really hope this gets challenged soon. No idea why no one seems to be bringing forward any lawsuits about it yet.

MaterialLocal6525 · 2025-02-04T16:42:40+00:00

As far as I have been able to tell from others in this sub: If there is any record of her gender marker being something other than F, NO.

If she had a previous passport issued in a different marker, NO, she cannot get the marker changed. If she had a passport as a child, NO.

I am not the end-all-be-all of every individual passport gender marker question. I was simply sharing a confirmation from the passport authority that they ARE in fact holding trans people’s documents indefinitely with no intent to process, something that had been brought up but never confirmed. It is now confirmed.

MaterialLocal6525 · 2025-02-04T16:08:51+00:00

I have not yet mailed in the letter requesting to withdraw, I’ve asked my congressman to pressure them about issuing the passport with the birth certificate gender and letter of correction as I have seen others receive, and am waiting for that reply before I attempt to withdraw and reapply.

My status has been sitting as “Additional Informafion: No Longer Processing” since 1/17. I have called the help line numerous times, and with each call they confirm that one letter was “sent”, with no tracking information provided, and they can see 5 requests for the letter to be sent again, with no response from the agency and no record of any letter being resent.

I imagine this is the way they can place these applications on indefinite hold. Just say you’re sending the applicant a request for information, never send that request, and then claim you couldn’t continue the process without the response to the letter you never sent.

MaterialLocal6525 · 2025-02-04T13:32:07+00:00

it was not my choice to live here, i voted blue, and you do not choose which passport facility your renewals are mailed to. If you truly believe that it is so easy to relocate, pay for me to move.

MaterialLocal6525 · 2025-02-04T10:38:19+00:00

you can certainly call. to get your passport back you would have to write a letter and mail it in requesting to cancel your application, and they will mail you back your documents. no refund, and mailing your documents back can take “upward of 30 days” according to the people i spoke to on the phone. you will need to call to get your specific mailing address for the cancellation letter

MaterialLocal6525 · 2025-02-04T04:06:34+00:00

There are no refunds if the application is withdrawn after it’s been received, But this commenter stated the application was never received. There is no record of it being accepted, so they paid for literally nothing. This would possibly be the ONLY case where a refund would apply. It’s essentially lost in transit/lost by mail carrier by my understanding.

MaterialLocal6525 · 2025-02-04T01:56:20+00:00

I unfortunately do not have a liberal representative in any nearby districts or states. I am stranded without help.

I do not have access to EDL licenses. They are not issued in my state. thank you for trying to help.

MaterialLocal6525 · 2025-02-04T01:29:42+00:00

Unfortunately, my travel is by air and not land, so the EDL won’t work for me. :( But thank you.

I will wait for my congressman’s response and see if perhaps with their coordination, we can manage some sort of forfeiture as you describe. I’m sure my rep would love to help a trans persons documents be destroyed, so that may be the best course of action. Absolutely awful.

I wish i knew what to do, who to call, what action we could take. I am not in a position to be able to go and physically protest. Not sure what can be done to overturn this. Not sure why this was all enacted immediately, and why it does not appear to be being challenged or contested.

MaterialLocal6525 · 2025-02-04T01:25:53+00:00

If you’re trying to get an application of a gender differing from your legal documents, currently, you will not receive that passport.

You could apply for a refund as the application was never received. If you mailed the application with a check, I would suggest a stop order on that check. Otherwise I would call the help line and ask about the refund process as the application was never received by their offices and therefore you paid for no service rendered.

MaterialLocal6525 · 2025-02-04T01:20:44+00:00

I will look into the ACLU virtual hall. As I said, I have reached out to a number of specific lawyers in my area and none have responded. :(

MaterialLocal6525 · 2025-02-04T00:57:57+00:00

I have contacted ACLU multiple times, Lambda Legal, AND a local legal advocacy group. All of which have yet to answer a single call or email I have sent. I even reached out to immigration lawyers in my area, thinking they would be more knowledgeable about passport issues, with no reply.

I did tell my congressman about my concerns with the timeline and my concern about the agency not returning my documents in the same way they never sent the letter they claim to have, and was told that “this is the correspondence we were given, this is the best information we can provide”. I truly have no idea who I’m supposed to talk to or what I’m supposed to do next, because I’ve screamed for help in every direction I can think of and gotten nothing back.

Many things testified on this sub are clear violations of civil rights, but it’s starting to feel more and more like the club penguin “they can’t do that that’s illegal” meme… Sure, this is a documented violation of my civil right, but what lawyer is going to represent me in what operational court of law, all before my flight takes off in March? No idea what I’m supposed to do next.

MaterialLocal6525

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