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From the New York Post: Secretary of State Marco Rubio has scrapped US passport applications allowing Americans to designate their gender identity as “X” after President Trump issued an executive order Monday that it is now “the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female.”
State Department staff were informed of the change in an internal cable sent Thursday mandating “sex, and not gender, shall be used” in official documents like passports and birth records in US embassies and consulates abroad, the Guardian reported.
Staff were specifically instructed to “suspend any application requesting an X sex marker” and to “suspend any application where the applicant is seeking to change their sex marker.”
Passports already issued will not be recalled, but applicants will not be able to choose the “X” designation when renewing their travel documents.
“The policy of the United States is that an individual’s sex is not changeable,” the email from Rubio to State Department staff read.
The Biden administration, under former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, had announced on April 11, 2022, “Starting today U.S. citizens will now be able to select an X as their gender marker on their U.S. passport application…. no special documentation is required. You simply select select your gender on the application form, even if it does not match the gender on your birth certificate or other documents,” a Biden official had declared.
In the first week, the Trump administration has now zapped that policy.
Starting today U.S. citizens will now be able to select an X as their gender marker on their U.S. passport application. Read more here: https://t.co/rputpuhNFs. pic.twitter.com/fvv5DZ9D6l
— Department of State (@StateDept) April 12, 2022
Under Rubio’s direction, the State Department also announced on Wednesday, “Performance and merit will be rewarded in the State Department in both letter and spirit.”
Below is the full text of a press release from Rubio posted on the State Department website, as he outlined the mission of the agency: [emphasis added]
Serving as America’s 72nd Secretary of State is the highest honor of my professional life. President Trump has given me a clear direction to place our core national interest as the guiding mission of American foreign policy. Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions:
Does it make America safer?
Does it make America stronger?
Does it make America more prosperous?
To advance our national interest, we will build a more innovative, nimble, and focused State Department. This will require replacing some priorities, deemphasizing some issues, and eliminating some practices.
First, we must curb mass migration and secure our borders. The State Department will no longer undertake any activities that facilitate or encourage mass migration. Our diplomatic relations with other countries, particularly in the Western Hemisphere, will prioritize securing America’s borders, stopping illegal and destabilizing migration, and negotiating the repatriation of illegal immigrants.
Next, we must reward performance and merit, including within the State Department ranks. President Trump issued an executive order eliminating “DEIA” requirements, programs, and offices throughout the government. This order will be faithfully executed and observed in both letter and spirit.
Relatedly, we must return to the basics of diplomacy by eliminating our focus on political and cultural causes that are divisive at home and deeply unpopular abroad. This will allow us to conduct a pragmatic foreign policy in cooperation with other nations to advance our core national interests.
We must stop censorship and suppression of information. The State Department’s efforts to combat malign propaganda have expanded and fundamentally changed since the Cold War era and we must reprioritize truth. The State Department I lead will support and defend Americans’ rights to free speech, terminating any programs that in any way lead to censoring the American people. While we will combat genuine enemy propaganda, we will do so only with the fundamental truth that America is a great and just country whose people are generous and whose leaders now prioritize Americans’ core interests while respecting the rights and interests of other nations.
Finally, we must leverage our strengths and do away with climate policies that weaken America. While we will not ignore threats to our natural environment and will support sensible environmental protections, the State Department will use diplomacy to help President Trump fulfill his promise for a return to American energy dominance.
In short, President Trump’s forward-looking agenda for our country and foreign relations will guide the State Department’s refocus on American national interests. Amid today’s reemerging great power rivalry, I will empower our talented diplomatic corps to advance our mission to make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous.
Performance and merit will be rewarded in the State Department in both letter and spirit. https://t.co/DhNQ0T8b4j pic.twitter.com/lWrwuNAtff
— Department of State (@StateDept) January 24, 2025
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) commented on the news about the passports, writing, “Americans think this is what common sense looks like.”
Americans think this is what common sense looks like. https://t.co/eR92WFveKd
— John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) January 24, 2025
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