Ema Alice: A federal judge on June 17 blocked the Trump administration from refusing to issue passports to transgender and nonbinary Americans nationwide that reflect their gender identities, after finding it was likely unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick in Boston issued a preliminary injunction that expanded an earlier order she issued in April that had stopped the U.S. State Department from enforcing the policy in the case of just six people. Trump issued an executive order immediately upon taking office that the federal government must “recognize only two sexes, male and female,” and that “these sexes are not changeable.” The Department of State then stopped issuing passports in anything but the applicant’s biological sex. The rule caused mass confusion. Trans applicants who had already submitted their passport application, for example, were out of luck. Trans travelers were stopped and accused of using fake passports. Kobick had previously ordered the State Department to issue passports to the six trans and nonbinary people while the case plays out in court.
The passport issue is just one example of Trump’s government-wide rollback of trans rights. His administration has also taken measures such as banning transgender people from serving in the military, which the Supreme Court upheld in May.
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