Representing seven transgender and nonbinary people, the ACLU has filed a federal lawsuit against President Trump over his executive order “barring people from updating the sex designated on their passports,” according to a report from WCVB-TV News Center 5:
Reports WCVB Newscaster 5:
Trump issued an executive order saying there are two sexes, male and female, and rejecting the idea that people can transition to a gender identify different from the one assigned at birth.
The State Department quickly stopped issuing travel documents with the “X” gender marker preferred by many nonbinary people, who don’t identify as strictly male or female. The department also stopped allowing people to change the gender listed on their passport or get new ones that reflect their gender rather than their sex assigned at birth.
Applications that had already been submitted seeking gender marker changes were put on hold. The State Department also replaced its webpage with information for “LGBTQI+” travelers to just “LGB,” removing any reference to transgender or intersex people.
The lawsuit filed Friday by ACLU lawyers challenging the passport change contends that the order discriminates against people based on their sex or transgender status, depriving them of their rights to equal protection, privacy and speech. It also contends the abrupt policy change violates the requirement for a 60-day notice and comment period.
“The plaintiffs in this case have had their lives disrupted by a chaotic policy clearly motivated by animus that serves zero public interest,” said Sruti Swaminathan, Staff Attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “Our clients need to travel for work, school, and family, and forcing them to carry documents that directly contradict what they know about themselves to be true–or withhold those documents altogether–is a blatant effort to violate their privacy and deny them their freedom to be themselves. We’re thankful for their participation in this lawsuit and are hopeful the court will see through this flagrant attempt to violate our plaintiffs’ rights under the Constitution.”
Read the complete WCVB story here.
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