The Trump administration will not be allowed to refuse issuing passports with the correct gender marker to trans and non-binary people.

On Tuesday (17 June), federal judge expanded a preliminary injunction blocking the US government’s attempt to deny passports with correct gender markers to a group of trans and non-binary individuals.

Building on a ruling she made earlier this year, US district judge Julia Kobick decided that the State Department was discriminating against six trans and non-binary plaintiffs on the basis of sex by trying to follow an executive order issued by president Donald Trump.

The president signed a directive in January which aimed to prevent the use of “X” gender markers on passports and to prevent trans people obtaining the documents showing their correct gender identity.

The order directed the State Department to change its policies so that passports could only be issued if they “accurately reflect the holder’s sex”.

It was opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), acting on behalf of six plaintiffs, and the order was temporarily blocked in April.

In her latest ruling, Kobick granted class action status for transgender, non-binary and intersex passport holders, essentially preventing any form of sex discrimination against them.

Kobick said it was necessary to grant class action status to trans people using “M” or “F”, as well as to those using “X”, because the State Department’s actions affected both groups, “by preventing them obtaining passports with a sex marker consistent with their gender identity”.

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ACLU lawyer Li Nowlin-Sohl, who represented the plaintiffs, said the ruling was a “critical victory” against discrimination and secured “equal justice under the law”.

But White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly labelled the decision “another attempt by a rogue judge to thwart President Trump’s agenda and push radical gender ideology that defies biological truth”.

X gender markers for non-binary passport holders were introduced in 2022 under president Joe Biden. Trump’s attempt to rescind the right prompted a legal challenge in February.

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