Airlines told to disregard gender-neutral ‘X’ on US passports and add ‘M’ or ‘F’

NEW YORK – Airlines are now required to disregard gender-neutral “X’’ sex markers on passports when passengers check in and replace them instead with an “M” for male or an “F” for female, under a federal rule effective October.

“X” markers have been available to US passport holders since 2022 to acknowledge the rights of people who do not identify as male or female. The third gender marker is used by non-binary, intersex and gender-non-conforming individuals.

US Customs and Border Protection said its new rule was effective July 14 but allowed airlines a 90-day period during which markers other than “M” or “F” could be used. The grace period has ended.

The new rule amounts to a data collection change and does not affect passengers’ ability to fly.

The Advance Passenger Information System, which airlines use to submit passenger information to the government, asks airlines to submit a response of “M” or “F” in the gender field. The system no longer accepts “X”.

The rule affects international flights entering or leaving the United States, not domestic ones.

“If the travel document presented by a traveller for an international flight to or from the United States has a sex indicator other than ‘M’ or ‘F’, or does not otherwise indicate the sex of the traveller, the carrier or the traveller should select either ‘M’ or ‘F’,” Customs and Border Protection said on its website.

Under executive order 14168, the Trump administration in January directed that passports reflect a person’s sex only as what was listed on their original birth certificate.

Passports held by travellers who use the “X” marker will remain valid until their expiration dates, the State Department said in a statement on Oct 20, although it is not clear what happens once those passports expire. NYTIMES