Gender-diverse Australians applying to stay in the US long term could face visa delays and be forced to use their gender designation at birth on forms following Donald Trump’s executive order on gender.
The order, which Trump signed after his inauguration on Tuesday, directs the secretaries of state and homeland security to ensure that passports, visas and other official government documents reflect male and female as the only two sexes.
The executive order explicitly refers to binary sex being printed on government-issued documents including passports, visas and global entry cards.
Australia allows passport holders to record their gender as X if they do not identify exclusively as either male or female. The Department of Foreign Affairs did not provide data on how many Australians have X on their passport, but according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, nearly 1% of Australians – around 178,900 people – are trans or gender diverse.
It is not yet clear how Trump’s executive order will work at the border and how official foreign documents will be treated. It is also possible the administrative processes will take time to execute, with the order stating agencies will need to submit an update on the implementation within 120 days of the order.
But associate professor of law at Australia National University, Wayne Morgan, said the executive order could lead to visa delays for gender diverse people applying for long-term stays in the US and force them to use their gender designation at birth.
“It could well mean there are delays in [visa] processing, because there is a difference in what your Australian passport says and what you’re forced to put on your visa application,” he told Guardian Australia.
“Being forced to designate male or female may also have a severe impact on mental health.”
Morgan said it was likely gender-diverse Australians traveling to the US for a short term stay or tourism would also be forced to designate themselves either male or female, but it was unlikely to prevent or significantly delay their entry into the country.
“The US would normally accept a passport as valid even if it has an X designation as gender as long as that designation is lawful in the country, which in Australia it is,” he said.
Morgan predicted people with X on their passports would be unlikely to be barred entirely from travelling to the US.
“I don’t think it would go so far as the US refusing to accept any passport that doesn’t have male or female on it, even for the Trump government,” he said. “It would prevent entry into the US of too many citizens from too many allies.”
Equality Australia’s CEO, Anna Brown, told Guardian in a statement that forcing gender-diverse people to designate their sex will be a “distressing experience”.
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“Having to explain our sex at birth is of little consequence to most Australians but for trans and gender-diverse people it can be a betrayal of who they are, particularly given how hard they have worked, often against great odds, to get there,” she said.
“We are witnessing an unprecedented dismantling of their rights and freedoms.”
While many countries will accept passports with an X, they can be a barrier for entry to other countries, particularly where there are laws against LGBTQIA+ people.
Dfat recommends Australians wanting to travel to the US follow the Smart Traveller website andcontact the embassy of their destination. The website does not yet have advice for people with an X on their passports travelling to America.
It states: “No federal law explicitly protects LGBTQIA+ people from discrimination, and not all state and local non-discrimination laws include protections based on sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Guardian Australia asked the US embassy for advice for Australian travellers under the new order. In a statement, the embassy said to refer to the executive order and for further information, to go directly to the White House.
The Smart Traveller website’s broad advice says non-binary and intersex people “aren’t recognised in some destinations”. The site advises Australians may be asked to provide binary sex information and recommends contacting the local embassy of each destination.
There is more specific advice for some nations like Saudi Arabia, where Smart Traveller warns passports with an X will not be able to enter.