US court rejects Trump transgender passport appeal

A US federal appeals court on Thursday upheld an injunction barring the US State Department from enforcing a policy directive from President Donald Trump aimed to prevent transgender and nonbinary Americans from obtaining passports that accurately reflect their gender identities.

What is the transgender passport policy all about?

The decision is the latest development in a series of cases linked to an executive order signed by Trump upon his return to office on January 20 by which the US president directed the government to only recognize male and female biological genders.

Previously, President Joe Biden's administration had allowed people to choose "X" as a neutral sex indicator on new passport applications, in addition to the options of "M" or "F" for male or female. For three decades before that, people had been able to update the sex designation on their passports.

But after Trump directed the State Department to change its policy so as to only issue passports that "accurately reflect the holder's sex," applicants are now asked to provide their "biological sex at birth." They can only be listed as male or female and cannot self-identify their gender.

Lawsuit filed against Trump policy

The American Civil Liberties Union sued, arguing that the policy unlawfully prevented transgender, nonbinary and intersex people from obtaining passports consistent with their gender identities.

And a district judge — Biden appointee Julia Kobick — agreed, saying the policy was arbitrary and rooted in an "irrational prejudice" toward transgender Americans that violated their rights under the constitution.

She initially issued a narrow injunction covering just six individual plaintiffs but in June expanded it after granting the lawsuit class action status.

Trump administration appeal rejected

The Trump administration appealed against the injunction but the three-judge panel at the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, Massachusetts, said the government had failed to meaningfully engage with Kobick's conclusion that Trump's policy reflected "unconstitutional animus toward transgender Americans."

The Biden-appointed judges added that "the government has failed to meet its burden to secure a stay" and noted the lower court's finding that persons affected by the change "will suffer a variety of immediate and irreparable harms from the present enforcement of the challenged policy."

There was no immediate comment from the White House or State Department.

Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko