Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Supreme Court allows Trump administration's anti-trans and anti-nonbinary passport policy (for now)

https://www.advocate.com/news/supreme-court-passport-gender-markers

Alex Cooper (6 Nov 2025)

The Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration on Thursday, allowing it to block transgender and nonbinary people from choosing the passport marker that best aligns with their gender identity while a legal challenge is brought against it.

It's the latest decision from the court affecting transgender and nonbinary people. It's also the latest win for Donald Trump on the court's emergency docket.

Thursday's decision stops a lower court's order that forced the federal government to continue allowing people to choose between male, female, or X on their passports.

In the brief released Thursday, which is unsigned, the conservative-majority court said the Trump administration's policy isn't discriminatory, according to the Associated Press.

"Displaying passport holders' sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth," the order said. "In both cases, the Government is merely attesting to a historical fact without subjecting anyone to differential treatment."

However, the three liberal justices disagreed, saying the policy would lead to "increased violence, harassment, and discrimination" toward trans and nonbinary people.

Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in a dissent, "This Court has once again paved the way for the immediate infliction of injury without adequate (or, really, any) justification."

We are thinking about taking a trip to Canada next to see the Canadian Rockies...

Does that mean when I come back into the country my passport with an F will be confiscated?

I have never traveled out of the country and I was hoping to do one or 2 trips to Europe after that as we will be retired... But I would very much hesitate to do so if I had a passport with an M on it...

We can't wait out the administration because we are 70 and 73 now, and physical decline with age is a real thing.
 
All my ID has said female for long time... back in 1998 i had my Birth certificate changed with my home state, and changed the sex marker with Social Security (which means the federal government has a record of the sex change).

I always feared there might be a backlash with the community being so out, as the average person can not really understand the need to change sex and it seems out there to them... and this administration has really amplified that.

- Karen

If all of your paperwork matches, you should be fine. I believe the initial issue was the rule which allowed the use of 'X' for non-binary people. If your passport has 'SEX: X', then expect problems. If you never updated your birth certificate and have transitioned, when you apply for a passport it will have your assigned sex at birth. To the best of my knowledge, no state or federal authority has attempted to retroactively change updated birth certificates back to the original assigned sex.

I have two trans friends who recently traveled internationally, and they did not report any issues with their passports.

It's OK to be paranoid about this, but I think a trip to Canada would be fine.

Love always -- Jessica Rose

I read the explanations the justices gave, and they predicated their opinions on "it is stating historical information". So, no, I don't think any of us are safe regardless of paperwork or not having an X marker. Their opinion is that your passport must reflect whatever your original birth certificate said.

Which is insane. Its no different than saying your passport must match the name or address recorded on your birth certificate. Passports are not issued at birth and were NEVER intended to have anything to do with your birth. The Supreme Court is blatantly making extremely biased statements to please their king. They no longer even pretend to care how law works.

This is such hogwash. I have an "X" gender marker on both my passport and driver's license. The marker reflects my gender, not some irrelevant, deprecated historical info. There is no reason to have folks assigned-at-birth gender, other than to shame and harass them, and to expose them to danger in an effort to discourage others from transitioning.

Because, you know, being trans is (insert negative adjectives here).