Editorial: Feds clamp down on US passports

Just in time for holiday travel, the Trump administration has brought the hammer down on transgender and nonbinary people. It was expected, after all.

The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month granted a stay of a lower court decision that said passport applicants could self-identify their gender, including with an “X” designation. That means that the executive order President Donald Trump issued in January can go into effect while the case proceeds in the lower courts. As usual, when it comes to detrimental actions against the trans community, the State Department wasted no time. This week it stated that U.S. passports must reflect the sex on a person’s original birth certificate.

The only silver lining is that the State Department indicated Monday that passports for trans people who have selected the sex marker that corresponds with their gender identity would remain valid for travel until their expiration date, the New York Times reported. “All passports are valid for travel until they expire, are replaced by the applicant, or are invalidated pursuant to federal regulations,” the State Department has posted on its website.

After that, however, don’t plan on using an “X” designation, at least during the rest of this administration. International travel for existing passport holders should be OK; although this too is not assured, as this administration has often changed course, especially when it comes to hot-button issues. And we’re not attorneys, so check with one if you have concerns.

But make no mistake, President Donald Trump’s war on transgender Americans shows no signs of abating, even as trans people and their allies mark the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance Thursday, November 20. Started by Bay Area Reporter Transmissions columnist Gwen Smith in 1998, the day is focused on recalling the loss of trans lives this year. There are too many, as is always the case. Transgender Visibility Week, which precedes the day of remembrance, is a chance for trans people to show that they are here and not going anywhere, no matter what the federal government says.

There are small signs that the country is already tiring of Republicans’ obsession with trans issues. As Smith noted a few weeks ago, a new Survey Monkey poll for The 19th found that four in 10 Americans want politicians to stop focusing on transgender issues. This was borne out in recent elections, in which Democratic candidates in New Jersey and Virginia won gubernatorial races and Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic socialist who has produced videos of him in strong support of the trans community, won the New York City mayor’s race.

In Virginia, the Republican candidate, Winsome Earle-Sears, tried to replicate the Trump campaign’s 2024 anti-trans ads to little effect. She lost by 15 points to Democrat Abigail Spanberger. The Human Rights Campaign noted that veteran Virginia political analyst Bob Holsworth said it was almost as if Earle-Sears’ candidacy had become a “one-note campaign,” which clearly didn’t resonate with the state’s voters.

“If you look at her website and what she says every day, it’s all about Abigail Spanberger and boys in girls’ locker rooms,” he noted. “It just seems to me that this is not the dominant issue in Virginia today.”

Back at the White House, Trump is dealing with fallout from the Epstein files, which both the House and Senate overwhelmingly approved releasing on Tuesday. And he’s losing it because his beloved tariffs are having the disastrous effect on the economy that many predicted – people are having a tough time making ends meet as food and other costs rise. That affordability message was successfully brought home by Democratic candidates on November 4, and it resonated with voters. Yet, Trump still keeps blaming former President Joe Biden. Note to the president: It’s your economy now.

We’re realistic enough to acknowledge that the administration’s focus on trans issues will not go away in Washington; it’s a way for Trump to distract from the real problems he is causing and it’s catnip for MAGA-land. Republicans control all three branches of government, and so far, they’re mostly capitulating to Trump in one way or another. (The aforementioned Epstein files are a marked exception.) For example, in January, the U.S. Supreme Court will take up the issue of bans on trans girls playing on female sports teams. We expect the justices to favor such bans – after all, they upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth in June.

In the meantime, as the holiday travel season begins, trans travelers are right to be concerned, even if they don’t need a passport. There’s a lot of polarization in the country right now. People should do what they need to in order to stay safe, and sane, in these times.