US judge questions Trump's passport policy targeting transgender people

Boston: A federal judge pushed President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday to justify why it could lawfully refuse to issue passports to transgender and nonbinary Americans that reflect their gender identities.

US District Judge Julia Kobick during a hearing in Boston appeared open to arguments by lawyers for seven transgender and nonbinary people that the policy the Department of State adopted at the Republican president's direction was discriminatory.

Trump on his first day back in the White House directed the federal government to recognize only two, biologically distinct sexes - male and female - and directed federal agencies to ensure grant funds do not promote "gender ideology."

That same executive order directed the State Department to change its policies to only issue passports that "accurately reflect the holder’s sex," a directive the agency swiftly implemented a few days later.

Kobick, an appointee of Trump's Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, did not immediately rule on whether the policy should be blocked. But she sharply questioned a lawyer with the US Department of Justice about why the policy was justified.

"There is clearly a burden on their ability to use their passports," the judge said.

Li Nowlin-Sohl, a lawyer for the plaintiffs with the American Civil Liberties Union, argued that transgender and nonbinary Americans could face potential harm if they traveled abroad with passports reflecting the wrong sex designation.

Kobick appeared to agree, telling a lawyer for the administration that doing so could forcibly "out" transgender individuals whose appearances do not align with the sex marked on their passports, exposing them to discrimination in foreign countries and additional screening.

"They're being denied a passport consistent with their gender identity because of their sex," Kobick said.

The hearing came in one of several lawsuits nationally challenging Trump's push since returning to office on January 20 to curtail the rights of LGBTQ individuals and transgender people in particular.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs say that policy reflected a total reversal of decades of practice at the State Department, which for more than 30 years -- including during Trump's first term -- allowed people to update the sex designation on their passports.

In 2022, the Biden administration allowed passport applicants for the first time to choose X as a neutral sex marker on their passport applications, as well as being able to self-select "M" or "F" for male or female.

Benjamin Takemoto, a Justice Department lawyer, told Kobick that Trump had "broad discretion to determine rules for issuing passports," allowing him to scrap Biden's policy in order to standardize government-issued identity documents.

But Kobick called that argument "sweeping," as she questioned how it did not reflect improper animus directed at a politically disfavored population, given the "slew of government actions against transgender and nonbinary people."

"It seems to deny that gender identity is something worth recognizing," she said.