Republican bid to cancel 'gender-neutral fU.S. passports
Bid to remove ‘Gender X’ from U.S. passports: Republican introduces bill to make sure government documents represent that there are ‘two sexes’
- Chip Roy, a Congressman from Texas is trying to overturn a Biden admin diktat issued last year
- The State Department started issuing gender-neutral passports last year
- But the bill stands little chance of becoming law as it will not pass the Democrat-controlled Senate
Americans will no longer be allowed to declare themselves as gender neutral in their passports if one Republican lawmaker gets his way.
The State Department started issuing travel documents with a gender neutral option on April 11 last year.
Officials said at the time that the move was in the name of ‘advancing inclusion’ for ‘non-binary, intersex, and gender non-conforming individuals.’
It was the first federal government agency to do so.
The State Department issued the first American passport with an ‘X’ gender marker, the United States’ first ever intersex passport, to Navy veteran Dana Zzym
Congressman Chip Roy has introduced legislation to ban gender-neutral passports in the U.S.
But now a bill drafted by Chip Roy, a Congressman from Texas, aims to reverse the Biden administration’s diktat that allowed people to make the switch without medical documentation.
The 50-year-old former attorney and ex-chief of staff to Senator Ted Cruz said there are only two sexes and that government documents ‘should reflect that self-evident truth.’
‘Passports exist to accurately identify people, not play pretend with radical gender ideology. Anti-science, radical gender ideology has no place in our government, and it’s time for Congress to step in and restore sanity,’ he fumed.
Roy has branded his bill the ‘Passport Sanity Act’ and it has already picked up support from fellow Republicans.
The draft law could pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, but it could struggle to succeed in the Democrat-led Senate.
But backers of the Biden administration consider the move the ‘X’ marker on the passport application forms a milestone in the recognition of the rights of people who do not identify as male or female.
‘Every American deserves the freedom to be themselves. But far too many transgender Americans still face systemic barriers, discrimination, and acts of violence,’ the White House said at the time last year.
Roy’s bill could struggle to muster support in the Democrat-controlled Senate
The United States is amongst just a handful of countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Nepal and Canada, that allows its citizens to designate a gender other than male or female on their passports.
They include easing travel, providing resources for transgender children and their families, improving access to federal services and benefits and advancing inclusion and visibility in federal data.
Transgender rights have been pushed to the forefront of the culture wars playing out in parts of the United States in recent years, together with issues such as reproductive rights.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis became a darling of the conservative right when he banned transition surgery for minors in the Sunshine State, and took on Disney over its criticism of his ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law governing sex education in schools.
Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has also vowed to ban transgender men from competing in women’s sports if he returns to the White House for a second term in 2025.
Source: Read Full Article