Can you change your gender marker on passports now? This is what we know.

On January 20, 2025, Trump issued an Executive Order on Gender Ideology seeking to create sweeping barriers intended to make trans people’s lives more difficult. Since then, he has issued other orders targeted at the LGBTQ community which aren’t the subject of this post. I hope to address these later.

Traditionally, Executive Orders (EO) are directives to federal agencies to clarify policies and procedures within a president’s authority. During Trump’s first term, in response to his first instances of governing by EO, the Congressional Research Service issued an article addressing whether a president can amend regulation by EO. Suffice it to say, the answer is complicated but EOs cannot easily circumvent rule making processes required by law. And despite Tump’s attempts to convince us otherwise, EO’s cannot change the Constitution, federal law or state law.

Many prospective clients have called concerning the impact of this and other Executive Orders. I’m addressing the immediate impacts of this EO for the trans community here. There will be other impacts which will unfold over time.

After the election and in advance of this administration coming into power, I advised our community to update their gender marker on their passport ASAP. While Trump did not change the policy that eased the requirements for gender marker change on passports during his first term, we worried enough that this term would be significantly different that we advised you to prioritize updating your gender marker on federal identification. This EO has changed prior policy permitting gender marker change.

As of this blog post, pursuant to the Gender Ideology EO the State Department has ceased processing any requests for gender marker change on passports and the Social Security Administration is no longer changing gender markers on social security records. According to a Passport Adjudicator (employee responsible for granting or denying passport applications) at the State Department, applications for amendment are piling up and unprocessed because they are uncertain whether to deny outright or approve but deny gender marker change.

The EO did not address existing documents, and so previously existing passports should remain valid until their renewal date. We’re uncertain about passport renewals where gender markers were already changed. After the election our connections in the State Department indicated that records were not kept of people who had changed their gender marker. If that is accurate, renewals on previously amended passports should be uneventful, but we don’t know and won’t know until our community begins attempting to renew their passports.

A Passport Adjudicator has indicated that they have no way of knowing what your gender assigned at birth was other than what is reflected on your birth certificate and state issued ID.  That means that if your state issued ID and your birth certificate reflect your gender identity appropriately and you have never had a passport, you may be able to get a passport that aligns with your state issued identification. Consider applying for your passport as quickly as you can before they issue additional guidance! There are reasons that this administration may be able to verify ultimately but I won’t help them by discussing how in this blog.

That leads me to the good news. North Carolina remains a state where we can align/change gender on state issued ID without issue. When our current governor was our attorney general, he streamlined the process for updating gender marker changes on driver’s licenses. You can easily update your gender marker using DL-300. Likewise, after some gentle nudging by lawsuit, we are able to amend NC birth certificates to reflect gender by completing a birth certificate modification application.

We expect to continue to be able to align gender across state ID and vital records for the duration of Governor Stein’s term. As you’ve heard me say NC is the only southern state with a Democratic triplex which means we have a democratic governor, attorney general and secretary of state. The individual in these offices are key to interpreting and enforcing the law. Additionally, we broke the super majority during this last election thanks to Equality NC (please donate if you can) and other progressive organizations. That means our Governor’s vetoes can’t be overridden so while things aren’t the best in our state they likely won’t get worse and, in fact, North Carolina may become a southern sanctuary for reproductive rights and LGBT issues.

This administration’s actions have been vile, heartbreaking and damaging. Your fear is reasonable. Your grief is warranted.

Know that helpers are everywhere. Our national advocacy organizations are working overtime, obtaining injunctions against his unlawful directives and state organizations are doubling organizing efforts and everyday actors are using the power they have to protect democracy and targeted communities. And we, we will be here too providing accurate information, volunteering and advising.

As my father said in his call the morning after the election, “Do not let this get into your heart.” I like to think he meant but could not articulate because English is his second language, “Do not let this get into your hear, instead keep queer joy there, keep authenticity there, keep love there because that is the foundation of all our tomorrows.”

With deepest love and abiding gratitude,
Milan