Trump’s binary gender mandate leaves trans Californians facing mounting risks

Ari Yovel, a 30-year-old rabbinical student in Oakland, said the world felt bigger the day they received a passport with an “X,” because it offered legal proof of their transmasculine nonbinary identity.

This week, that world shrunk.

Among President Donald Trump’s raft of actions on his first day back in office was an executive order mandating that all federal documents recognize only two genders: male and female. In its wake, many nonbinary and transgender Californians are grappling with uncertainty about their ability to travel freely.

For Yovel, the change poses immediate practical challenges.

“Now, we’re back to hoping TSA officials will be understanding if our documents don’t align with their expectations,” Yovel said. “Understanding your risk profile becomes a constant calculation. Traveling across state lines for a friend’s wedding, let alone leaving the country, requires careful consideration of safety.”

The executive order requires federal agencies to eliminate references to gender identity on official forms and policies, mandating that federal documents reflect what it terms the “immutable biological reality of sex.” That poses more than an inconvenience for gender-nonconforming people, advocates say — it creates risks for those whose legal documents no longer align with their identities.

“This is a big deal,” said Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights. “To say that transgender people have to carry a passport that misidentifies them not only invades their privacy; it forces them to disclose that they are transgender to anyone that they are interacting with. That is a pretty draconian policy that could lead to harassment, and in some countries, death.”

Lambda Legal, a civil rights organization, plans to file litigation arguing that targeting transgender, intersex and nonbinary people violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. The group also says that the language of the executive order constitutes a due process violation, citing its lack of specifics and vague directives.

“There will be litigation to test whether and where the federal government can impose discrimination contrary to California law,” said Jennifer C. Pizer, Lambda’s chief legal officer. “As well as contrary to the Constitution and existing federal statutes and the Supreme Court’s decision agreeing with us that discriminatory treatment based on transgender status or sexual orientation constitutes sex discrimination in violation of the federal employment nondiscrimination law.”

California led the way in providing gender-inclusive identification. Since 2019, the state has allowed residents to choose “X” as a gender marker on driver’s licenses and IDs. Jarys Maragopoulis, a San Francisco high school teacher who identifies as intersex and non-binary, changed their gender marker on their California driver’s license.

“I risked the scrutiny of a future intolerant government,” Maragopoulis said. “Now that hypothetical government is quite real, and I am afraid there may be legal consequences for trans and intersex people who have left a paper trail such as a changed ID. But I have to face those consequences without giving up on my integrity.”

Although state-issued IDs remain unaffected by Trump’s executive order, advocates worry about its broader implications.

“The intended impact on transgender people is to strip them of all legal protections in every arena, from government-issued identification documents to workplace protections, to education, housing, and health care,” Minter said. “The passport policy is instantaneous. The federal prison policy is instantaneous. These are areas where the president has the authority to merely change the policy.”

The State Department’s passport application system removed the “X” marker on Wednesday, but the agency has not issued formal guidance regarding how the nonbinary marker on existing passports or in-progress applications will be handled. The change leaves transgender people in a precarious position, as passports expire every five years, forcing many to make difficult decisions about future travel and safety.

“President Trump does not have the power to erase LGBTQ+ people or deny them the right to exist freely and safely,” said Tony Hoang, executive director of Equality California. “We stand unwavering, ready to fight alongside our partners against any unjust and harmful action this administration may take toward our community.”

The executive order also aims to reestablish multiple policies regarding trans Americans that were in place during Trump’s first term, including housing trans people in federal prisons based on their sex assigned at birth.

Minter said he is already hearing reports from transgender people inside prisons that doctors are denying them medically necessary care for gender dysphoria. Transgender women, in particular, are preparing for transfers to men’s prisons, where they face increased risks of violence and harassment.

“You cannot legislate trans people out of existence,” Yovel said. “You can only legislate them out of law. For many of us, this is quite literally our bodies on the line.”