A new rule that will require airlines to disregard gender-neutral “X” marks on U.S. passports and input either an “M” or an “F” into their passenger data systems has come into effect.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced plans in July to abandon official recognition of the X mark, but airlines had a 90-day window to prepare for the new policy. That window closed late last week, meaning airline employees reviewing an X-marked passport holder’s booking will have to select either male or female as they submit information to the Advance Passenger Information System, or APIS, which Customs uses to screen for possible security threats.
“If the travel document presented by a traveler for an international flight to or from the United States has a sex indicator other than ‘M’ or ‘F’ or does not otherwise indicate the sex of the traveler, the carrier or the traveler should select either ‘M’ or ‘F,’” a Customs memorandum states. “Submitting ‘M’ or ‘F’ in the sex field, in place of the value reflected on the travel document, will not subject the carrier to penalty.”
The document does not suggest that citizens with the X mark are barred from flying internationally, only that airline employees will have to make an independent guess or judgement about customers with X-marked passports that likely contradicts their wishes and self-described identity.
The State Department issued the first X passport in 2021 following a federal anti-discrimination lawsuit and introduced the option for all U.S. citizens the following year. The Biden administration said the X mark was needed to properly recognize non-binary, intersex, and gender-nonconforming Americans.
But on the first day of his second term in office, President Donald Trump issued an executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” which withdrew federal recognition of transgender people and requires all federal agencies to use the male-female binary in their official documents.
A federal court in Massachusetts has blocked some aspects of the executive order from taking effect, including provisions that would do away with the X mark entirely. The court’s ruling also ensures that existing X-marked passports remain valid.
