People sue government for deliberately misidentifying them on passports

A Cambridge college student and a Salem video-game designer are among seven people who have sued to block a new government policy that only allows passports to have gender designed as "M" or "F."

In their suit, filed this week in US District Court in Boston, the seven charge that the change, among the first announced by Elon Musk's co-president last month, in an executive order in which he could not even bring himself to use the words "egg" and "sperm," violates their rights to equal treatment, right to travel, privacy and freedom of speech and is an "arbitrary and capricious  violation of the federal Administrative Procedures Act.

Until Jan. 21, Americans had the right to chose among "M," "F," and "X" as their designated passport gender, with X reserved for people who did not want to chose one of the first.

The plaintiffs say this not only violates the rights of transgender, intersex and nonbinary citizens, it puts them at potential danger for travel to countries that, at least until Jan. 21, were less forgiving of gender differences - and can cause problems even in the US or Canada for passport holders who identify and present as one way but are marked another. One of the plaintiffs charges they've already gotten a passport where the government changed their gender preference to what the government wanted.

Bella Boe is the pseudonym of a woman who became a college student in Cambridge last year:

Bella is currently known only as female to her family, to staff and peers at her school, and in her communities in New Jersey and Cambridge. She had hoped to travel to England as part of her studies:

When Bella travels and interacts with government officials, they perceive her as a female. This is not only affirming for Bella, it keeps her safe. 

Bella's most recent passport, which she received in 2021, has a female sex designation. She sent her passport in for renewal on January 23, 2025, to ensure that her current passport would remain usable for as long as possible. Having a female sex designation on her passport affords Bella safety and reassurance while traveling. She is terrified that, under the Passport Policy, she will no longer be able to travel safely.

Bella would feel uncomfortable traveling with a passport that inaccurately stated a male sex designation. Not only would this reflect an attempt to erase who she is, it would be confusing for government officials who would otherwise identify her as female based on her gender expression and invite additional, stressful scrutiny. Bella does not want her passport to out her as transgender every time she uses it, especially when traveling outside of the United States in countries that are not accepting of transgender people.

Sawyer Soe is the pseudonym of a Salem resident:

Sawyer is a nonbinary person. Their sex assigned at birth was female, but they do not identify with a binary sex. The term "nonbinary" accurately captures their identity. 

Sawyer has lived as a nonbinary person in all aspects of their life since 2019. They have always known their gender identity to some degree, as they are naturally an androgynous person and that is typically how others perceive them. Today, Sawyer is fully themselves at work and among friends and family.

Sawyer was able to obtain a Massachusetts driver's license with an "X" sex designation in July of 2023, and this has allowed them to navigate travel and daily interactions safely and comfortably. Having an "X" sex designation on their identity documents allows them to escape the arbitrary enforcement of an identity projected on them solely based on their sex assigned at birth. The "X" designation provides Sawyer with freedom and privacy that allows them to exist in a way that is free of a label that they did not choose for themselves and that is inconsistent with how they live.

Sawyer has not been able to update their United States passport, which expired in 2019, in a similar manner. This was not something Sawyer sought to do during the earlier days of the COVID-19 pandemic that occurred soon after the passport's expiration because Sawyer did not travel then. Recently, Sawyer has begun traveling more. Sawyer's design team at work is planning an on-site collaboration with their colleagues in Canada, and Sawyer will be required to travel internationally to Canada within the next three months, and potentially several more times in the coming year.

 Sawyer would feel safer if they had an "X" sex designation on their passport because it would be consistent with their identity, it would protect their privacy as it would prevent disclosure of their sex assigned at birth to strangers, and it would match the other identity documents that they currently carry. Due to the Passport Policy, Sawyer will no longer be able to obtain an "X" sex designation on their passport that accurately reflects who they are, how they express their identity, and how others perceive them.