(last updated 11/7/2025)
Passport update: Effective November 6, 2025, Trans people may NOT obtain accurate gender marker on passports
Following a January 2025 Executive Order, the State Department began barring people from obtaining passports with a sex designation on them that is not the same as their sex assigned at birth. In response, the ACLU filed a federal lawsuit challenging the State Department’s policy on behalf of transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people.
On June 17, 2025, a federal court issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting application of the policy. However, on November 6, 2025, the US Supreme Court granted a request from the Trump administration to allow the government to enforce the administration’s passport policy while the ACLU’s legal challenge to the policy continues.
That means that if you apply for a new or updated passport now, you will get a passport that lists your sex assigned at birth, regardless of what sex marker you request.
The ACLU’s FAQ about this case is linked here.
President Trump has signed a number of executive orders (EOs) that impact Trans communities, and rescinded a number of previous EOs that protected the community.
Remember that executive orders generate headlines (and confusion) but do NOT have the authority to override the United States Constitution, federal statutes, or established legal precedent. Given that, many of these orders will be difficult to implement, and efforts to do so will be challenged through litigation.
To track all of the executive orders, we recommend the EO tracker from Akin Gump. You will have to subscribe but it’s free and they won’t burden you with excess email.
To track litigation resulting from anti-LGBTQ EOs, we recommend the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association’s tracker.
To track all litigation resulting from the EOs and other actions by the current administration, we recommend Just Security’s tracker.
An overview of the Anti-Trans EOs is available from GLAD here.
RESOURCES
Passports and Identity Documents
- Guide to Identity Documents for Trans and Nonbinary People (Lambda Legal)
- Know Your Rights: Passports (A4TE)
- Transgender ID Project (GLAD Law)
- Learn more about your state’s policies (Movement Advancement Project)
- ID considerations for Immigration Forms and U.S. Passports for Trans, Non-binary, and Intersex People (Immigration Equality, National Immigrant Justice Center, Oasis Legal Services)
- Report passport issues directly to the ACLU.
Gender-Affirming Care
- Gender-Affirming Care Executive Order Explainer (Advocates for Trans Equality, interACT, National Women’s Law Center, Transgender Law Center, Planned Parenthood, Center for Constitutional Rights, and National LGBTQI+ Cancer Network)
Discrimination Protections
- Trump’s Executive Orders Promoting Sex Discrimination, Explained (ACLU)
- An overview of Trump’s Day One anti-transgender executive order (A coalition of LGBTQ+ advocacy groups)
- Impact of Executive Order Revoking Non-Discrimination Protections for LGBTQ Federal Employees and Employees of Federal Contractors (Williams Institute)
- A4TE Trans Survival Guide
Trans Military Ban
- Resources and Information for Transgender Service Members (A coalition of trans military and legal organizations)
- GLAD Law and NCLR have filed a challenge to the transgender military ban (GLAD Law)
K-12 Education