Social Security Administration – Original Photo: Bruce Bortin, Flickr CC
The U.S. Social Security Administration has stopped allowing people to make changes to the gender marker, also known as “sex identification,” on their Social Security records.
As first reported by Metro Weekly alum Chris Geidner, writing for his Law Dork Substack, the Social Security Administration imposed the “emergency” change last Friday. It went into effect “immediately.”
The “emergency message,” issued internally, stated, “Effective immediately, we can no longer process changes to the sex field on the NUMIDENT,” a reference to the Numerical Identification System, which contains the information provided to obtain a Social Security number, including a person’s sex.
In the first days of the second Trump administration, the Social Security Administration took down a webpage outlining how to change one’s sex identification. However, there had been anecdotal reports of changes still being allowed.
The internal directive from the Social Security Administration now closes the door on that possibility.
The policy change marks a reversal of a trend where the Social Security Administration was making it easier for transgender individuals to change the “sex” on their record to reflect their gender identity.
In 2013, the Obama administration eliminated a requirement that a person needed to undergo gender confirmation surgery to change the sex field on their records, instead accepting a note from a physician certifying that a person had undergone a gender transition.
In 2022, the Biden administration allowed individuals to self-select their gender marker without providing medical documentation — which, as Geidner notes, was the original policy of the Social Security Administration from its inception until 1980, when the agency began requiring documentation showing that “sex-change surgery has been started.”
That surgical requirement was bolstered subsequently in 2002 and 2003 to require proof from a surgeon that a person seeking to change the sex on their record had completed gender confirmation surgery.
The policy change aligns with President Trump’s executive order stating that the U.S. government will only recognize two sexes, male and female, based on a person’s assigned sex at birth.
The acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, Michelle King, is a Trump appointee.
The “emergency message” contained instructions for employees directing them not to accept changes to the gender marker on a person’s Social Security record.
“An individual’s sex data is male (M) or female (F). In accordance with the recent presidential actions under Executive Order ‘Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to The Federal Government,’ sex field data changes on the NUMIDENT must not be accepted or processed.”
The message directed field offices to inform those seeking to change the sex listed on their records that the sex field cannot be changed. If an individual contacts the administration’s call center to ask about changing the sex field, employees are instructed to inform the person that “we are not able to accept or process a sex field change.”
For the second time, a federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit from University of Wyoming sorority members who challenged the admission of a transgender woman, arguing that she did not meet the definition of the word "woman."
"Having considered the issues presented (again), we find that the majority of the claims must be dismissed on the grounds that this Court still may not interfere with the sorority's contractually valid interpretation of its own bylaws," U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson wrote in his ruling.
The case began in 2023, when six members of the University of Wyoming’s Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter sued the sorority for admitting Artemis Langford, a transgender woman, and allowing her to use the campus house’s common areas -- though not live there -- according to Wyoming Public Media.
A new report published by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law finds that an estimated 2.8 million Americans aged 13 or older identify as transgender.
According to NBC News, that figure represents about 1% of the U.S. population within that age group. The breakdown is nearly even: 34.2% identify as transgender men, 32.7% as transgender women, and 33.1% as nonbinary.
One statistic drew particular attention on social media: younger Americans are far more likely to identify as transgender than older generations. About 3.3% of those ages 13-17 identify as transgender, compared to just 0.3% of those 65 and older.
The Family Research Council is blasting Ulta Beauty for selling hair products from nonbinary reality star and hairstylist Jonathan Van Ness, best known for Netflix's Queer Eye, and for posting an Instagram video showing Van Ness in a multi-colored dress and white heels, "jumping and shrieking" with excitement as store employees unveil a display featuring a large poster of him.
The famously anti-LGBTQ group claims Van Ness' behavior mocks women and "what he perceives to be female behavior." It also notes that Ulta previously hosted a now-deleted podcast episode featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, which it cites as further evidence the company promotes a caricatured view of femininity.
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.