Trump asks the U.S. Supreme Court to allow him to enforce transgender and nonbinary passport policy

U.S. passports are arranged for a photograph in Tigard, Ore., Dec. 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to let it enforce a passport policy for transgender and nonbinary people requiring male or female sex designations that conform with birth certificates.

The Justice Department appealed a lower-court order allowing people use the gender or “X” identification marker that lines up with their gender identity.

The government says it can’t be required to use sex designations it considers inaccurate on official identification documents.

The State Department changed the way it processed passport applications after Trump, a Republican, handed down an executive order in January declaring the United States would “recognize two sexes, male and female,” based on what it called “an individual’s immutable biological classification.”

Actor Hunter Schafer, for example, said in February that her new passport had been issued with a male gender marker, even though she’s had female gender markers on her driver’s license and passport since she was a teenager.

A judge blocked the new policy in June after transgender and nonbinary people challenged it in court. The plaintiffs said some transgender people had seen their applications returned with changed designations and others were afraid to submit applications.

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to put the judge’s order on hold while the lawsuit continues to play out.

Lindsay Whitehurst, The Associated Press