Everything is in Flux for Transgender People

I've seen a lot of comments here from people who sound like they have an idea of the situation with passports for transgender people. But the frightening truth is that nobody does. It is in flux.

The language in the EO was that "The Secretaries of State...shall implement changes to require that government-issued identification documents, including passports, visas, and Global Entry cards, accurately reflect the holder’s sex, as defined under section 2 of this order." Not "reflect upon re-issuance." It says "reflect," which is present tense.

The DoS has decided, at this time, that it is administratively burdensome to track down existing passports to invalidate them, and it would be best to catch the "mistake" on re-issuance. That might only be because they don't have the personnel to go back and check all issued passports - we don't know.

• That does not mean they cannot change that policy without an executive order at any moment.
• It also doesn't mean that if someone points out a problem with a specific passport, they won't intervene.
• It also doesn't mean that upon reentry to the U.S., BCP can't stop you, declare that your passport is defective under the EO, and seize it to be reissued with the "correct" gender marker (passports say right on them that they are the property of DoS).

None of that is currently happening, but we don't know what will happen in six months or a year. New senior management (other than the Secretary) will be in place soon in DoS, and they may change things.

Notwithstanding what I just wrote, I suspect the more red flags an application sends up, the more likely it will be rejected. An X marker is such a red flag. Prior passports under a different marker are another. Supporting documents that don't match are another.

Also, keep in mind that human beings are making these decisions. They may understand their instructions differently, and some may be more or less sympathetic. Also, sometimes, rogue staff do what they think is best (like back when clerks were refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples). If an individual staffer decides to deny a passport application, I doubt that appealing to their superiors will be effective.

These are not normal times and normal approaches may not work.

If you used your real name in posts about successfully getting a passport changed/issued, I strongly recommend covering your tracks as soon as possible. If I were trying to locate people to "correct" their passports, this is one place I would start, along with social media. The best approach is to fly under the radar.