One of President Trump’s recent executive orders will impact certain passport holders.

Trump has been making headlines since his return to the White House earlier this week, signing multiple executive orders almost immediately upon entering the Oval Office.

His policies will affect jobs in the United States, climate change, and immigration.

According to BBC News, Trump signed over 200 directives on Monday (January 20). The news agency defines an executive order as a written directive from the president to the federal government that does not require legislative approval.

The 78-year-old issued an executive order with the title “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”

One of the most significant changes brought about by the order concerns the recognition of two genders. As a result, female correctional facilities will no longer house transgender women.

This ruling will also affect the passports of non-binary individuals.

According to a 2021 study, 1.2 million Americans identified as non-binary, and those who wished to have an ‘X’ marker on their passports could do so under the Biden administration.

In October 2021, Ambassador Jessica Stern hailed the issuance of the first passport with a ‘X’ gender marker as a “significant step forward.”

“The inclusion of a third gender marker moves the US closer to ensuring that our administrative systems acknowledge the diversity of gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics among US citizens,” she added, as reported by Sky News.

However, the US State Department has halted the acceptance of applications for ‘X’ gender markers in response to President Trump’s latest executive order.

In an email disclosed by The Guardian, Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently informed staff: “The US policy maintains that an individual’s sex is not changeable.”

He went on to say that official documents like passports and consular reports of birth abroad should use “sex, not gender.”

The staff received instructions to “suspend any application seeking an ‘X’ sex marker” and “suspend any application where the applicant seeks to change their sex marker.”

We anticipate that this new regulation will impact both current and future passport applications.

As of now, passports with an ‘X’ sex designation remain valid, but individuals needing to update their travel documents soon may encounter difficulties.