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Topics: Donald Trump, US News, Politics, LGBTQ,
Rhianna Benson
Topics: Donald Trump, US News, Politics, LGBTQ,
A federal judge has shut down the US President's attempt to refuse passports to transgender and non-binary citizens who wish to declare themselves as such.
During his damning inaugural speech back in January, Donald Trump vowed that the federal government would recognise 'only two genders' going forward.
Weeks later, not only did the Republican rule that trans women would be banned from competing in female sports, but the Secretary of State, Mark Rubio, issued bans on new passports for individuals who wished to define their gender as 'X'.
Both policies was proposed earlier this year as part of Trump's general gender-based plan, titled 'Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government'.
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Rubio's staff were instructed to 'suspend any application requesting an X sex marker' in line with the right-wing leader's passport ban, as well as any 'where the applicant is seeking to change their sex marker'.
Now, Trump's travel policy has been blocked by United States District Judge Julia Kobick.
Back in April, the Boston judge issued a preliminary injection on the controversial policy.
This allowed six transgender/non-binary individuals in opposition to Trump's proposal to obtain passports consistent with their gender identities or with an 'X' sex designation.
These six individuals were plaintiffs in a lawsuit after one woman had her passport returned with a male designation, whilst another requested their name and gender to change from male to female back in January - a request that remained neglected until this week.
The other four transgender/non-binary individuals, however, were afraid of submitting theirs in fear of their application being suspended.
Kobick ruled at the time: "The Executive Order and the Passport Policy on their face classify passport applicants on the basis of sex and thus must be reviewed under intermediate judicial scrutiny.
"That standard requires the government to demonstrate that its actions are substantially related to an important governmental interest. The government has failed to meet this standard."
The judge - who was appointed to her position by Trump's presidential predecessor, Joe Biden - went on to argue that the Republican's proposition violated the US Constitution's Fifth Amendment, in that it likely discriminated on the basis of sex, as per Reuters.
Trump's administration in turn responded at the time claiming that the passport policy 'does not violate the equal protection guarantees of the constitution'.
Since then, however, Kobick has expanded on said injunction. Making her decision, she ruled that Trump's executive order was rooted in an irrational prejudice toward transgender Americans.
As such, Kobick granted the case class action status, halting its enforcement. Transgender, non-binary and intersex individuals will now have the opportunity to update their gender markers on their passport.
According to The Guardian, however, this ruling only applies, however, to people currently without a valid passport, those whose are expiring within a year, those whose have been lost or stolen, or those who need to amend their name or sex designation.
A spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has since said in a statement: "While this is good news, we will continue fighting until this executive order is blocked permanently."