U.S. Passport Update: July 3, 2025

I write today with an important update on the United States passport policy and processing for transgender passport holders and applicants.

Since January 20, the Trump Administration has targeted the LGBTQ+ community, and the transgender community in particular, launching a barrage of legal attacks to restrict the rights of transgender and other queer folks in the United States. On January 20, Trump signed executive orders denying the existence of transgender and intersex people and denying their freedom of movement. The ACLU, ready to defend queer liberty, filed suit in the District of Massachusetts: Orr v. Trump.

The Court in Orr has issued a number of injunctions and court orders over the past few months, generally in favor of the Plaintiffs seeking to enforce their Constitutional rights. For my fellow law nerds, you can read the docket here. On June 17, Judge Julia E. Kobick issued a preliminary injunction in Orr v. Trump prohibiting enforcement of the anti-transgender policy and ordering the federal government to resume processing passports for transgender folks.

The ACLU summarizes the June 17 ruling: 

Today’s ruling from the court means that a passport with a sex designation that aligns with one’s gender identity or with an “X” sex designation should be made available to anyone applying to:

• Obtain a new passport

• change the sex designation or update their name on their current passport

• Replace a lost, stolen, or damaged passport, or

• Renew their passport within one year of its expiration.

This includes those who, under the Trump administration’s policy, were previously sent a passport with a sex designation listing their sex assigned at birth after applying for a new, renewed, or replaced passport, and/or a changed name or gender marker.

On July 2nd, Erin in the Morning reported that the federal government has resumed processing passports for certain transgender applicants.  The Department of State website was updated the same day to reflect this policy change. 

This great news comes with a big asterisk for transgender folks who are concerned with privacy: for certified class passport applicants, special and potentially sensitive data will be collected and kept by the federal government indefinitely. For transgender folks seeking to have the injunction, which requires the government to process passports, enforced in their case, the passport applicant will have to provide information which shows that they qualify as a member of the class receiving relief under the lawsuit. For more on what this means, please read the Erin in the Morning article breaking the news. Further, The Trump administration continues to balk at lawful court orders, so the ACLU is preparing for a July 10 hearing on a motion to enforce the injunction. 

Last month, our community celebrated Pride–an acknowledgment of our resilience and an opportunity to share our collective joy. But we do not ever forget the struggle that gave us the celebration. Our liberation and freedom to celebrate in the streets was earned in large part due to transgender women of color who were beaten or killed by cops, who were jailed for daring to perform their gender differently, and who decided that enough was enough and made their stand at bars in NYC in the summer of 1969. 

Fast forward to the summer of 2025, 56 years later, the Trump administration wants to roll back queer human rights. For 163 days, transgender folks were denied passports. People could not travel to see sick family members, could not conduct business or study abroad, could not travel across the border in places like Niagara Falls, New York or Point Roberts, Washington where international travel is a casual and daily occurrence. Freedom to travel, freedom of expression, freedom to spend time in public with your spouse or loved ones. For the queer community, these are recent wins, and we are still fighting for basic recognition of our identities, for the right to exist in public.

As Civil Rights Activist Fannie Lou Hamer said on July 10, 1971, “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.” 

Consensual Non-Monogamy (CNM) 101

I founded Brick Legal, PLLC to serve non-traditional families like mine. Studies show that non-monogamous families are now even more common than queer families. As a loud and proud queer & polyamorous attorney, I believe it is my responsibility to be an ambassador for my communities. The blog below is designed to educate folks on the basics of consensual non-monogamy (CNM) and introduce the legal options available to CNM families in Massachusetts.

Clear definitions are key to a successful conversation, so we will begin with answering a few questions and establishing some common terms used by the CNM community and by the queer community. 

→What does “polyamory” even mean? Is it the same as polygamy?

This is a common misconception! Polygamy historically refers only to marriage, and more specifically it typically denotes a man who has marriages to multiple women. Since  Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145 (1879), the U.S. has widely prohibited legal marriages between more than two people. Polyamory, by contrast, uses Latin and Greek root words to describe “many love,” or a partnership with more than two people. Unlike polygamy, polyamory does not denote marriage. See the definitions below for more detail. 

ENM/CNM: ENM stands for “ethical non-monogamy” and CNM stands for “consensual non-monogamy.” Both of these terms, used interchangeably in the community, describe a relationship style where all participants informedly and enthusiastically consent to a relationship with more than one partner. 

Polyamory: a subset of ENM or CNM. Polyamory is to CNM as a square is to a rectangle: all polyamorous relationships are consensually non-monogamous, but the reverse is not true. Polyamory is a distinct type of consensually non-monogamous relationship where people typically commit to and engage in long-term romantic love and intimacy with multiple partners.

Polycule: the CNM version of “couple.” Polycule describes the relationship unit, comprising all partners and metamours (defined below). To illustrate: Aspen is dating Birch and Cherry. Aspen, Birch, and Cherry are all members of the same polycule. 

Metamour (or “meta” for short): a gender-neutral version of “girlfriend-in-law.” To illustrate: Aspen and Birch are ethically non-monogamous. Aspen is dating Birch, and Aspen is also dating Cherry. Birch and Cherry do not date, but they are members of the same polycule. Because they have a partner in common, Birch and Cherry are metamours. 

Hinge: the partner that two metamours have in common. Using our Tree Family example: Birch is dating Aspen. Cherry is also dating Aspen. Birch and Cherry are metamours, and Aspen is their hinge. 

→How prevalent is this lifestyle anyway?

Studies show that, for Americans, practicing polyamory is even more common than being queer. One study found that 1 out of 6 people (16.8%) desire to engage in polyamory, and at least 1 out of 9 people (10.7%) have engaged in polyamory at some point during their life. Research shows that roughly 1 in 14 people (7.1%) in the United States identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or something other than heterosexual. 

→What is that long acronym y’all use?

LGBTIAQ2S+ stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Asexual, Queer/Questioning, Two Spirit, plus. The plus is a sort-of catch-all which acknowledges the fluidity of these identities and the ineptitude of the acronym to encompass all queer identities. 

→Why do you keep saying “queer”? Isn’t that offensive?

Folks in the queer community have reclaimed the word “queer,” which used to be exclusively a slur lobbed against us, as the shorter catch-all moniker.  We have all experienced oppression for our non-traditional lifestyles and identities, and we recognize that standing united under a broad label is a strong expression of our solidarity with each other. “Queer” denotes anyone who does not conform to society’s rigid gender, sexuality, and relationship norms. 

Brick Legal, PLLC and Protecting Your Rights in a Non-traditional Relationship 

Every person has the right to choose the relationship and family structure that is right for them. When weighing your options, it is crucial to remember that there are rights and benefits afforded to those in a legal marriage that are not guaranteed to those in other relationship scenarios, such as domestic partnerships or other romantic or platonic arrangements. Experts strongly encourage individuals in non-traditional relationships or families to research their legal options. Cohabitation agreements, co-ownership agreements, premarital or marital agreements, support agreements, and estate planning documents can be used to spell out your rights in a relationship. 

Whether your family is consensually non-monogamous or queer, both of these communities find solidarity in being non-traditional. The law does not always contemplate the specific issues faced by non-traditional families, such as support requirements for a non-marital partner–but at Brick Legal, PLLC, understanding and addressing these nuances is our forte. If your non-traditional family needs an empathetic attorney with a passion for providing support, please reach out.

If you’d like to see a blog post discussing more esoteric polyamorous terms (such as kitchen table polyamory, parallel poly, relationship anarchy and more), please email me at marie@brick-legal.com