The Biden administration announced Thursday a robust list of actions aimed at helping transgender Americans feel more accepted, including adding the option to select “X” as their gender on passport applications.

The announcement coincides with International Transgender Day of Visibility, an annual day celebrating transgender people and raising awareness about the discrimination they face.

“Every American deserves the freedom to be themselves,” the White House said in a statement Thursday. “But far too many transgender Americans still face systemic barriers, discrimination, and acts of violence.”

Starting April 11, U.S. passport applications will include a third option of “X” for “unspecified or another gender identity.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced in June that passport applicants could self-select their gender as male or female and no longer were required to show proof or medical certification if their self-selected gender did not match other forms of identification.

Blinken said then that the State Department was exploring the possibility of adding a third choice. The department has since solicited public feedback, consulted with other countries that already took the step and worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct research in which they interviewed a demographically diverse group of people, including many members of the LGBTQ community.

“The Department of State has reached another milestone in our work to better serve all U.S. citizens, regardless of their gender identity,” Blinken said in a statement. 

Other actions announced Thursday included Transportation Security Administration reforms to make travel easier for transgender people; a new website with resources for LGBTQ youth, their parents and providers; new training supporting transgender and nonbinary students being made available to schools; and support for gender-affirming care for children and adolescents.

The TSA said it will begin this year updating its Advanced Imaging Technology body scanners with more accurate technology that is not gender based. With the current system, transgender travelers have been required to undergo additional screening because of alarms in sensitive areas. 

The agency also is removing gender considerations when validating traveler’s identification at airport security checkpoints, adding the “X” gender markers option in TSA PreCheck enrollment and working with airlines to adopt the third gender designation in their reservation systems.

“DHS is committed to protecting the traveling public while ensuring that everyone, regardless of gender identity, is treated with respect,” Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the TSA, said in a statement.

In its statement, the White House condemned what it called “the proliferation of dangerous anti-transgender legislative attacks that have been introduced and passed in state legislatures around the country.”

According to the civil rights group Freedom for All Americans, 25 anti-trans bills were proposed in state legislatures this session.

“The evidence is clear that these types of bills stigmatize and worsen the well-being and mental health of transgender kids, and they put loving and supportive families across the country at risk of discrimination and harassment,” the White House statement said. “As the President has said, these bills are government overreach at its worst, they are un-American, and they must stop.”

Some of the steps announced by the Biden administration Thursday appear to be aimed at countering those Republican-led efforts.

The White House said that in response to multiple states stripping information about mental health resources for LGBTQ youth from their official websites in recent months, the Department of Health and Human Services has launched its own website. The site includes best practices for affirming LGBTQ children and information about suicide-prevention services.

The Biden administration also said the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, run by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, is releasing new information telling providers that gender-affirming care is neither child maltreatment nor malpractice. Meanwhile, HHS has released literature for parents and guardians, educators and others supporting children explaining what gender-affirming care is and why it’s important to the well-being of transgender and nonbinary youth.

Those initiatives come after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an order in February for the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate gender-affirming care procedures as child abuse, an edict that has been temporarily blocked by the courts. The case is scheduled to go to trial later this year.