(Washington) The predominantly conservative US Supreme Court on Thursday endorsed the Trump administration’s ban on the issuance of passports bearing the gender “X” or a gender different from that of birth for transgender people or people who identify as non-binary.
Donald Trump signed a decree on January 20, the day of his inauguration, according to which his administration would henceforth recognize the existence of only “two sexes, male and female,” defined at birth.
He thus returned to a reform introduced under his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden. The US State Department then announced that it would stop issuing passports with the gender “X” or a gender different from the birth gender of the document holders.
This decision was challenged in court and suspended at first instance in June, then on appeal in September.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court, against the opinion of the three progressive judges (out of nine in total), lifted this suspension.
“Displaying the gender of passport holders at birth does not further the principles of equality before the law than displaying their country of birth. In both cases the government is only attesting to an established fact,” she said.
The influential civil rights organization ACLU, involved in the procedure, sees this decision as “a step backwards for the freedoms of all people to be themselves”, accusing it of “fueling the fire fueled by the Trump administration against transgender people and their constitutional rights”.
The first American passport with gender “X” was issued in October 2021 by the State Department for “non-binary, intersex people” and more broadly those who do not recognize themselves in the gender criteria proposed until then.
The rights of transgender people are one of the major themes of the societal wars fracturing the United States. Donald Trump made it one of the axes of his campaign in 2024, promising to put an end to the “transgender delirium”.
Since his return to power, he has reversed a series of achievements obtained by transgender people.
He ordered the exclusion of transgender people from the armed forces and authorized federal agencies to cut funding to schools that allow transgender athletes to compete in women’s championships.
The Supreme Court has provisionally authorized the Trump administration to exclude transgender people from the military, ahead of a decision on the merits.
It must also rule in the coming months on the participation of transgender people in women’s sports competitions.
