Secretary of State Marco Rubio has directed the State Department to freeze applications in the passport pipeline with “X” selected as the gender identifier.

President Donald Trump signed a presidential order that says the U.S. government recognizes only two sexes, male and female. The order also says all federal documents — including passports — should refer to “sex” rather than “gender.

It is one of the first directives to be implemented after Trump signed a sweeping anti-trans executive order declaring only two sexes, male and female as assigned at birth.

Passport applicants who call the State Department’s National Passport Information Center with questions are being told to wait for new guidance before applying if they can, whic

State Department staff were instructed to “suspend any application requesting an X sex marker” and to “suspend any application where the applicant is seeking to change their sex marker.”