Washington, Oregon attorneys general call for withdrawal of ‘dehumanizing’ gender rule change for passports

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Attorneys general in the Pacific Northwest are joining a call for the State Department to withdraw a proposed rule preventing changes to gender markers on passports.

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown and Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield announced they joined a group of 10 other attorneys general in a comment letter sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday opposing the rule change.

That rule change stems from a January executive order from President Trump declaring the United States will only recognize two sexes: male and female.

The executive order led the State Department to propose changes to several passport forms, the attorneys general said, noting the proposed rule change breaks decades of federal policy on gender identity – including the ability for people to change gender markers on identifying documents.

Now, the attorneys general argue that the proposal could “significantly harm” transgender and non-binary communities.

“These discriminatory rules would add confusion and costs for taxpayers merely to satisfy the president’s fixation on dehumanizing an entire class of people,” Attorney General Brown said.

According to the attorneys general, the policy would cause confusion if state-issued ID cards and federal identifying documents do not match, noting more than one dozen states allow transgender and non-binary people to correct their state-issued birth certificates to accurately reflect their gender identity.

If gender identity information on state-issued documents does not match federal documents, states “would likely be forced to expand needless resources to review mismatched documents,” according to Attorney General Brown.

“This proposed change undermines the fundamental rights and dignity of transgender people,” Attorney General Dan Rayfield added. “It creates further harm to a community already vulnerable to discrimination. We’re standing up to any effort that seeks to erase their identities and equal protections under the law.”

The comment letter was led by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell and New York Attorney General Letitia James and joined by the attorneys general of Washington, Oregon, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey and Vermont. 

Pride Northwest, Inc. — an LGBTQ+ advocacy group based in Portland, Oregon — told KOIN 6 News that the organization is already seeing the potential harm the proposal could have on the LGBTQ+ community.

“People are already making painful choices to undo documentation changes that honor their identities, back to what does not — and having to expend limited resources to make those changes — so as to not be even more targeted than they already are. People are afraid to make plans for travel and so on because of ‘what if,'” said Pride Northwest, Inc. Executive Director Debra Porta. “I myself am unsure whether my wife and I will be able to respond to any family emergencies, as we both have parents and family that live in other states.”

Porta added, “The proposed changes are not grounded in any legitimate national security need and are intended to do direct harm to already marginalized and targeted people.”

KOIN 6 News reached out to the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security. This story will be updated if we receive a response.

The American Civil Liberties Union is also challenging the passport policy, filing a lawsuit in the federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts on behalf of seven people who have been unable to receive passports accurately depicting their identities.