Supreme Court's Transgender Passport Ruling: A 'Heartbreaking Setback' for LGBTQ Rights

The order represented another win for US President Donald Trump on the court's emergency docket and another setback for LGBTQ rights at a time when the justices are considering multiple cases involving state laws aimed at trans Americans.

"Displaying passport holders' sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth - in both cases, the government is merely attesting to a historical fact without subjecting anyone to differential treatment," the court said in an unsigned order, as per CNN.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, named to the court by former US President Joe Biden, penned another scathing dissent, joined by the court's other two liberals.

"Such senseless sidestepping of the obvious equitable outcome has become an unfortunate pattern," Jackson wrote, as per CNN.

"So, too, has my own refusal to look the other way when basic principles are selectively discarded," she said. "This court has once again paved the way for the immediate infliction of injury without adequate (or, really, any) justification."

The American Civil Liberties Union, which had challenged the policy, described the court's decision as a "heartbreaking setback for the freedom of all people to be themselves."

"Forcing transgender people to carry passports that out them against their will increases the risk that they will face harassment and violence and adds to the considerable barriers they already face in securing freedom, safety, and acceptance," said Jon Davidson, senior counsel for the ACLU's LGBTQ and HIV Project.

The Trump administration's policy, stemming from a January 2025 executive order, mandates that federal documents, including passports, recognise only two sexes, male and female, based on "biological classification" and birth certificates.

This temporarily reverses a 2021 policy under President Joe Biden that allowed Americans to self-select their gender marker, including a nonbinary "X" option, without medical documentation.

As a result of this change, new passport applicants must currently select either male or female based on their birth certificate; however, existing passports with an "X" marker remain valid until their expiration date.

- ANI