Battered by COVID-19, waves of illegal immigrants and fears of even larger surges ahead, Customs and Border Protection officers have a new burden: they must now be sure to use proper pronouns for LGBTQI+ migrants.

The new requirement was included Thursday at the bottom of a much larger announcement by the Homeland Security Department concerning changes instituted on International Trans Day of Visibility.

“Facilitating effective communication at U.S. ports of entry and beyond: CBP has provided a job aid and memorandum to all staff that will serve as a guide for facilitating effective communication with the diverse public CBP serves, including LGBTQI+ individuals,” the agency said. I

“The guidance includes using gender-neutral language and an individual’s self-identified pronouns and name,” it added.
CPB‘s requirements came as a Biden Administration made sweeping actions across numerous agencies to create new accommodations for transgender and non-binary people.
The State Department on Thursday announced that US Citizens will be able to choose “X” as their gender rather than “Male” or “Female” on their passports

Meanwhile, the Transportation Security Administration on Thursday morning announced new standards for screening transgender, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming airline passengers at airport checkpoints.

The agency said the changes are to “improve the screening experience for all passengers” and announced them on International Transgender Day of Visibility.

TSA also said the new standards will go into effect after the implementation of new technology that will in part replace the current, gender-based system, which will be more accurate and “advance civil rights and improve the customer experience of travelers who previously have been required to undergo additional screening due to alarms in sensitive areas.”

If the testing of the new technology proves successful, the agency will begin deploying the other updates to airports later this year including:

  • Reducing the number of pat-down screenings
  • Streamlining identity validation
  • Making TSA PreCheck more inclusive to include an “X” gender marker option on its application
  • Updating its Transgender, Nonbinary, and Gender Nonconforming Passengers web page to provide information to the traveling public on all gender-related updates