Should U.S. passports be accurate?

Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court paused an ongoing effort to force through transgender passports. In 2010, President Barack Obama’s State Department allowed people who had “undergone appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition” to switch sexes on their passports. In 2022, the department added a third “X” option. In January, President Trump issued an executive order directing federal agencies to issue passports that accurately reflect the holder’s sex. In June, Biden-appointed U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick ruled against that order. Now the Supreme Court has issued a stay order, arguing, “Displaying passport holders’ sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth—in both cases, the government is merely attesting to a historical fact without subjecting anyone to differential treatment.” The court has not issued a final decision on the case, Trump v. Orr, and the culture war over sexual deviancy and other sins in America rages on.