Marco Rubio Makes First Big Move As Secretary Of State

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has directed the State Department to stop issuing passport applications that request “X” as a gender.

Rubio’s move comes after President Trump signed an executive order that “recognizes two sexes, male and female.”

In 2022, on Transgender Day of Visibility, Biden added the “X” gender marker on U.S. passports.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio bans passports with ‘X’ gender markers after Trump order: report https://t.co/ukMtK0ZUqz pic.twitter.com/gmT2xUIXnQ

— New York Post (@nypost) January 24, 2025

JUST IN: Secretary of State Marco Rubio bans all passport applications with ‘X’ gender marker after Trump’s executive order.

Only Male and Female! pic.twitter.com/kRBTHcMm3D

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 24, 2025

Here’s what The Daily Wire reported:

New U.S. passports with the gender-neutral marker “X” will be paused after an executive order from President Donald Trump.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has directed the State Department to freeze passport applications that request “X” to be marked for gender. Under the new policy, passports already issued with “X” as the gender will still be valid.
The move comes after Trump’s day one executive order to officially “recognize two sexes, male and female,” and defined a woman as an “adult human female.” The order reversed the policy of allowing people to change their sex on passports and personnel records.

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Since 2010, Americans have been allowed to change their sex on their passports. Initially, the change required forms showing a physician’s approval, but in 2021, then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken scrapped that requirement. In 2022, he added the “X” gender marker, a change announced on Transgender Day of Visibility.

#FirstpostAmerica: US President Donald Trump’s controversial policies have been hitting the LGBTQ+ community very hard. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reportedly issued a directive, ordering his staff to freeze all passport applications with the “X” sex marker. | @EKH2016 pic.twitter.com/e7vbAOPDbj

— Firstpost (@firstpost) January 24, 2025

Per The New York Post:

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has scrapped US passport applications allowing Americans to designate their gender identity as “X” after President Trump issued an executive order Monday that it is now “the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female.”

State Department staff were informed of the change in an internal cable sent Thursday mandating “sex, and not gender, shall be used” in official documents like passports and birth records in US embassies and consulates abroad, the Guardian reported.

Staff were specifically instructed to “suspend any application requesting an X sex marker” and to “suspend any application where the applicant is seeking to change their sex marker.”