Skatering

I'll be first to admit this is idle speculation, but there was an article in yesterday's New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/21/u...efinition.html) regarding a proposal by the Trump administration to define biological sex as 'the sex assigned before or at birth' which cannot be changed.

The outcome of this could lead to the cancellation of passports held by transgender people, with the insistence that these documents are re-issued based on birth sex. This could lead to a de facto ban on travel by transgender Americans (which would probably be the least of their problems if this passed.)

But I was wondering, as a trans woman (UK citizen, Canadian resident) would this lead to a de facto ban from the US for myself and others like me? Would my passport be considered invalid due to my sex designation not matching what the federal government considers me to be? What if I were to apply for a US visa? What sex marker would they use then?

I'd be very surprised if a policy like this was enacted, but I'm genuinely curious how this would affect travel. Is there any precedent with 'X' gender passports in countries that don't recognise this designation?

GUWonder

saizai

Trans people already travel on non-matching ID all the time. It would likely lead to the usual harassment, but not a ban.

I don't believe so. While you might be treated as male under US domestic federal law, your passport is an assertion of UK sovereign authority, and its designation states the UK's opinion that you're female.

Refusing to honor it on that basis, or demanding a genital or DNA check, would cause a diplomatic incident.

However, you might have issues under domestic US law, e.g. harassment or discrimination, like US residents. (This is an issue among countries that disagree about whether someone is married to someone else, e.g. for foreigners needing emergency health care and access to their unrecognized spouse. Or divorcing while abroad. Etc.)

Because a visa expresses the views of the issuing country, but is also a sort of inter-country agreement, it could be either. Would depend on what the US Department of State decides; they might have a policy of "just copy the passport". (Mind that they'd also care about reciprocity issues; they don't want US citizens to have their passports disrespected by other countries.)

The proposal you reference, AFAIK, is within Department of Health & Human Services, which handles domestic stuff like insurance, employment, death, etc. I'm not aware of any HHS jurisdiction over foreign policy issues.

I'm not aware of any case law at all about X gender passports, anywhere worldwide, except for cases from people trying to get one. If anyone else knows of any case law on this anywhere, I'd like to see it.

84fiero

It wouldn't. At all. Title IX - the statute under discussion in the linked article - deals with sex-based discrimination in Federally-funded education programs and activities. It has absolutely nothing to do with passports, visas, immigration, or travel...or anything else beyond the scope of Title IX, for that matter.