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Trans rights under assault, please don't look away [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-09-19

In case you didn’t hear, the Trump administration has petitioned the Supreme Court to overrule a district court’s injunction against changes to passports. If Trump prevails, this will mean trans people have to put their assigned sex at birth on their passport. This is true regardless of whether they’ve changed other documents, such as their driver’s license. The change from the present passport rules is unwarranted and unjust and flat-out cruel.



The administration’s argument is that passports are not just issued by, but property of, the federal government; assigned gender is necessary for identification purposes; and changed sex undermines (somehow) executive authority when it comes to foreign relations.



Firstly, the Trump administration has undermined its foreign relations quite well enough on its own. Other governments and nations feel enough contempt for America right now that it’s embarrassing, almost scary, to travel outside the U.S. Still, it’s a weak legal argument because a person’s sex cannot be used in this prejudicial way, at least not if the Supreme Court sticks to precedent. If you think about it, what is on passports now is a non-issue; it’s worked for years. It would be the change, i.e., passports with a picture and name that doesn’t match what people perceive as gender, that throws a wrench into things.



As for identification, that’s wrong on many levels. Most importantly, the federal government does not control birth certificates. States do. And there are already mismatches with passports. The sex of a child which is stated on a birth certificate is no more of an identifier than the given name, which is of course changed regularly. When people get married or change their name for any other reason, this doesn’t affect the federal government’s ability to identify individuals or do law enforcement. Nor does a name-change interfere with people’s right to free movement.



(One could argue that the use of sex for identification is completely outmoded. At one time it may have been related to one’s appearance, clothing, mannerisms, etc., but those days are long gone and aren’t coming back. Don’t we have male politicians now wearing makeup?)



Truly, all the Trump thugs are trying to do is create conflict where none exists. They know a different sex on a passport will lead to a mismatch with airline tickets, etc., which gives them an excuse to pull people aside and harass them or, worse, deny them entry back into the U.S. If the Supreme Court misses this and thinks it is not discrimination on the basis of sex, then, well, you’ve got to wonder what part of s-e-x they don’t understand.



The medical argument against the new passport rule is probably not worth giving, because, well, science, facts and rational decision-making don’t really matter to Republicans generally or to the Supremes specifically. But here goes: there are real sex mis-assignments at birth. They are not rare. Even if you don’t want people “choosing” their sex, how can those who had it decided for them, wrongly, be punished for that? Bottom line: the government has to stay out of our stuff! Trump may be missing Jeffrey Epstein or looking for birthday card material, but he and his passport inspectors can't be pulling people’s pants down or lifting skirts to see if they agree with a doctor.



Of course, the strongest argument here is---WTF!! Can’t the Trump administration leave a vulnerable population alone for God’s sake?!. This isn’t about bathrooms, sports, or Pete’s Hegseth’s nonsensical ideas of human virtue. It is bullying. It is cruelty. It is singling out an already-vulnerable population for no reason but spite and show, throwing fellow human beings into the ring to be humiliated or chewed apart. I don’t think the word sadist has been disallowed yet (like facist), but that is Trump. He is one sadistic POS.



The question now for the rest of us is what are we going to do with this overgrown teenage-minded bully? Will we walk away, leaving him standing over someone on the playground hooting and hollering and poking his little fingers? Or we will stand together and confront the bully? Can we form a protective circle around those he’s picking on?



The answer is yes, we can stand our ground---and we need to tell our elected leaders to stand their ground. This is not a question of being liberal, progressive, activist, moderate, or centrist. This is common cause. It matters as much as anything in protecting our country, our democracy, our humanity, our pride in ourselves. We cannot look away.



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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/9/19/2344502/-Trans-rights-under-assault-please-don-t-look-away?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

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