Although the current passport gender-marker policy remains unchanged, language about the process for changing those markers on U.S. passports has been altered or removed from the State Department's website, according to a National Center for Transgender Equality ( NCTE ) press release.
The longstanding page regarding "Gender Designation" policiesin place since 2010has been removed, and a new but similar page concerning what they now call "Sex Designation" has been put in its place, with major changes.
Among the changes claimed were the removal of resources from the American Medical Association and the World Professional Association of Transgender Health, and the change of the most mentions of the word "gender" to "sex," among other alterations.
However, a State Department official emailed Windy City Times about the development, saying things have been changed back: "We want to state unequivocally that there has been no change in policy or in the way we adjudicate passports for transgender applicants. The Department of State is committed to treating all passport applicants with dignity and respect.
"With regard to recent changes to our website regarding transgender passport applicants, we added language to make our use of terms consistent and accurate and to eliminate any confusion customers may have related to the passport application process. We apologize for inadvertently including some language which may be considered offensive and are updating the website to remove it.
"Our goal is to make sure our use of these terms is consistent and accurate and to eliminate any confusion customers may have related to passport application process. U.S. passports and passport applications have always used the term 'sex' marker.
"The links to AMA and WPATH were inadvertently removed during the website update process and are being added back: travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/apply-renew-passport/change-of-sex-marker.html ."
To learn more about the requirements for updating the gender marker on a U.S. passport, visit NCTE's ID Documents Center ( transequality.org/know-your-rights/passports ).
Andrew Davis