As Donald Trump continues to terrorize the trans community, the German government has issued a warning for its trans and nonbinary citizens about traveling to the United States.

A message from the German Foreign Office explained Trump’s recent mandate that passport gender markers reflect a person’s sex assigned at birth, which will also be required for those entering the country.

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“Travelers who have the gender entry ‘X’ or whose current gender entry differs from their gender entry at birth should contact the relevant US diplomatic mission in Germany before entering the country and find out the applicable entry requirements,” the Foreign Office communicated through a warning in the Rheinsische Post.

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At the end of February, the State Department told U.S. immigration officials around the world to deny visas to transgender athletes attempting to enter the U.S. and to permanently ban any athletes who “misrepresent” their birth sex on visa applications. While it only applies to athletes, many fear it will be used to ban trans people overall from entering the United States.

An order from Secretary of State Marco Rubio instructs U.S. consulates and visa offices around the world to examine all birth certificates that conflict with other official identity documentation and to mark all suspected cases with “SWS25” so that the State Department may easily track cases and enforcement worldwide.

A German official explained to Advocate that Germany’s new Self-Determination Act has made it significantly easier for trans people in the country to update the gender markers on their legal documents. “The self-determination law makes changing your first name and gender marker easier than it has been in the past. Transgender and nonbinary persons can now change their first name and their gender marker through a notarized declaration. Through this process, they can obtain new birth certificates and ID documents reflecting their gender identity.”

As such, more transgender Germans are likely to have gender markers on their legal documents that do not match their birth certificates. “Transgender and nonbinary individuals traveling from Germany to the United States should contact the responsible U.S. authorities prior to travel to the U.S. to inquire about current entry regulations,” the official confirmed.

The U.S. State Department stopped issuing accurate passports after Trump signed an executive order declaring that the federal government would only recognize two genders and that government-issued identification documents should reflect a person’s sex “at conception.” Following the executive order, Rubio ordered that all passport applications requesting an “X” gender marker be suspended, as well as any applications listing a person’s gender identity rather than the sex they were assigned, the ACLU’s lawsuit states.

Previously, nonbinary applicants were able to self-select an “X” gender marker, as were individuals who had not had their birth certificate reissued to show their correct gender after the previous administration of President Joe Biden began allowing it in April 2022.

The ACLU is currently suing the State Department on behalf of seven plaintiffs to fight the new passport policy, arguing that Trump’s policy violates the First Amendment’s protection by imposing the president’s ideological beliefs onto citizens, the Equal Protection Clause by discriminating against the plaintiffs on the basis of sex, the Due Process Clause by unlawfully restricting their freedom of movement, and the Administrative Procedures Act for failing to provide advance notice about important changes to government forms.

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