Sex is not an ongoing process. Sex is binary in mammals and cannot change."X" indicates intersex, which is sex but not M or F.I do not see any 'gender' field.I don't have a U.S. passport, but none of the examples I've looked at online have a 'Gender' field. Did the U.S. add a 'Gender' field and give it three options?
Right side, about half way down.
I see a field marked 'sex'. If the US wants to replace biological sex (which is observed and recorded at birth) with gender identity, it should get rid of 'sex' and put 'gender identity' in its place. And if the US wants her people to have 'gender identity' on their passports, I would ask 'why'?
How is this even a question given all the information that has been hashed out here about how human beings are not always fully female or male in reproductive organs? When it's not clearly male or clearly female, it's called intersex. This is not always apparent at birth, which is not even a point in the sex organ process. It begins early after conception and continues for most of gestation and not much of significance until puberty. The process can be described as "ongoing," but birth is not a change point or "milestone" in that process.
There is no rational reason to consider these cases "disorders" any more than you would call blue eyes or freckles "disorders."
Whether the people who know their own sex to be intersex want that to be known is their business. When they do, there are now more places where they can indicate X. This is not a "gender identity" although that is of course related in not only personal experience but obviously in social dynamics throughout life.
Most people with disorder of sexual development are not intersex but are male or female. But where there exists enough ambiguity for passport purposes, their sex should rightfully be indicated as 'X'.
"Intersex" is not a gender identity but the State department listed several uses for 'X', including for people who are trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming. These are not sexes.
As for why a passport would have gender identity, I have no idea, but if they do that, I would also be interested in their rationale for it. Trump administration aside, government agencies don't tend to make such changes flippantly. Right or wrong, they do get legal and scientific input, especially for shit they are aware is going to hit the fan given the large chunk of bigoted right wing morons we have in our population.
The military started adapting to this reality decades ago in a lot if not all of the many and varying DoD databases within the DoD and in agencies whose databases the DoD can access.
The new passport will now have a hybrid 'sex' field, where sex is listed for some people and gender identity for others.