State Department Will Allow X Gender Marker On Passports

Today, on the Transgender Day of Visibility, the State Department announced beginning April 11 U.S. citizens will be able to select an X as their gender marker on their passport application.

U.S. citizens will be able to select X as their gender marker on their U.S. passport book starting April 11. As we mark Transgender Day of Visibility, we mark this historic moment at the @StateDept as a meaningful step towards LGBTQI+ inclusivity. #TDOV

— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) March 31, 2022

From the State Department:

The Department of State has reached another milestone in our work to better serve all U.S. citizens, regardless of their gender identity.

In June, I announced that U.S. passport applicants could self-select their gender and were no longer required to submit any medical documentation, even if their selected gender differed from their other citizenship or identity documents.

Starting on April 11, U.S. citizens will be able to select an X as their gender marker on their U.S. passport application, and the option will become available for other forms of documentation next year.

The Department is setting a precedent as the first federal government agency to offer the X gender marker on an identity document.

When we announced in June that we had begun this work, we referred to the addition of a third gender marker for non-binary, intersex, and gender non-conforming individuals.

Since then, we have solicited public feedback through the notice and comment process we undertook to update our passport application forms.

We have also continued to consult with partner countries who have already taken this important step to recognize gender diversity on their passports.

Read the full announcement here. Shortly after taking office, President Biden included working towards offering an X gender marker for non-binary people in his 17-page plan to improve LGBTQ equality. In related news, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will begin implementing new measures to make airport security screening better for transgender people. Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) body scanners often cause false positives when it comes to transgender people since it’s gender-based; TSA workers enter the passenger’s gender into the machine before a person is scanned based on their visual assessment. “By replacing the current, gender-based AIT system, this new, more accurate technology will also advance civil rights and improve the customer experience of travelers who previously have been required to undergo additional screening due to alarms in sensitive areas,” DHS said in a statement. “TSA will begin deploying this new technology in airports throughout the country later this year.”