by Mary Margaret Olohan
Sen. J.D. Vance is introducing legislation requiring a person’s actual, biological gender on their United States passports.
The Ohio Republican’s Passport Sanity Act would require the secretary of state to ensure that all applications for passports, passport cards, or Consular Report of Birth Abroad documentation include only the gender designations of male and female, prohibiting any passport documentation that includes the unspecified X gender designation.
“The last thing the State Department should be doing is wasting its time and your tax dollars pushing far-left gender ideology,” Vance told The Daily Signal. “There are only two genders—passports issued by the United States government should recognize that simple fact. I am proud to introduce this bill to restore some sanity in our federal bureaucracy.”
Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy also introduced this legislation in the House in June.
“There are two sexes—male and female—and government documents like passports should reflect that self-evident truth,” the congressman told The Daily Signal. “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. I am proud to partner with my friend Senator Vance to advance this important, bicameral effort.”
The lawmakers took action following the State Department’s 2022 announcement that in addition to “M” for male and “F” for female, “U.S. citizens will be able to select an X as their gender marker on their U.S. passport application.”
“X” is intended to mean “unspecified or another gender identity,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at the time. “This definition is respectful of individuals’ privacy while advancing inclusion.”
Also, “beginning in late 2023,” the State Department will allow applicants for a Consular Report of Birth Abroad to choose “X” as a gender marker.
The State Department website specifically states: “You do not need to provide any documentation (medical or other) to change your gender, even if the gender you select on the application does not match the gender on your previous passport or other documents.”
State has boasted that it is “the first federal government agency to offer the X gender marker on an identity document.”
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Mary Margaret Olohan is a senior reporter for The Daily Signal. She previously reported for The Daily Caller and The Daily Wire, where she covered national politics as well as social and cultural issues. Email her at [email protected].
