The Trump administration has forced airlines into an unprecedented position of having to guess passengers’ genders after federal systems began rejecting valid “X” gender markers on U.S.-issued passports, creating chaos in air travel and effectively erasing transgender recognition from federal documentation.
Story Highlights
- Federal passenger systems now reject “X” gender codes on valid U.S. passports, forcing airlines to guess gender or face operational delays
- Trump’s January executive order mandates only male/female designations on federal IDs, reversing Biden-era transgender policies
- Airlines caught between honoring valid passports and complying with new federal data requirements face fines and compliance risks
- Ongoing litigation provides temporary protection for some applicants while creating a patchwork of inconsistent enforcement
Trump Administration Restores Biological Reality to Federal Documents
President Trump’s Executive Order 14168, signed January 20, 2025, titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” mandates that all federal identification documents recognize only male or female sex designations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio immediately implemented the directive by suspending passport changes for sex designations and eliminating the “X” marker option. This decisive action reverses the Biden administration’s radical gender ideology policies that allowed self-identification and nonbinary markers on official documents.
Airlines Face Operational Chaos From Conflicting Federal Requirements
The U.S. Advance Passenger Information System began rejecting any gender code other than M or F on October 12, 2025, creating unprecedented operational challenges for airlines. Carriers must now either guess passengers’ gender for those holding “X” passports or face system rejections and compliance penalties. Customs and Border Protection has provided no comprehensive guidance for handling batch APIS submissions with X markers, leaving airlines in legal limbo. This bureaucratic mess demonstrates the consequences of the previous administration’s poorly conceived policies that created documents the federal government now cannot process.
Legal Challenges Create Temporary Confusion
U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick issued a preliminary injunction in Orr v. Trump on June 17, 2025, temporarily allowing some individuals to self-select sex markers on passports while litigation continues. The Trump administration has requested the Supreme Court pause this injunction to fully enforce the binary gender policy. This legal uncertainty has created inconsistent enforcement, with some applicants reportedly denied gender marker changes despite court protection. The administration’s position rightly emphasizes that federal policy should reflect biological reality rather than subjective gender identity claims.
International Travel Complications Expose Policy Failures
The passport gender marker conflict highlights how the previous administration’s virtue-signaling policies created real-world problems for American travelers and businesses. Valid U.S. passports with “X” markers remain technically valid for entry according to State Department websites, yet federal systems functionally reject them during airline data transmission. Airlines face potential discrimination lawsuits while trying to comply with federal mandates, demonstrating the chaos created when government policy contradicts biological reality. This mess underscores why the Trump administration’s return to common-sense policies based on biological sex protects both individual rights and operational clarity.
The situation remains fluid as courts balance constitutional rights against executive authority, while airlines scramble to navigate conflicting requirements. The ultimate resolution will likely depend on Supreme Court action and the completion of the State Department’s transition away from nonbinary recognition in federal documents.
Sources:
USA Flights: New APIS Transmission Rules on Gender Codes and American Passport Number Formats
