Trans Actress Hunter Schafer Says Her Passport Now Lists Her Sex As Male After Trump Executive Order
Hunter Schafer, a transgender actress best known for her role on the HBO drama “Euphoria,” posted a video to her TikTok story stating she had to renew her stolen passport, but the passport she received lists her sex as male, which she said was due to President Donald Trump’s executive order defining a person’s gender as either male or female based on what was assigned at birth.
Schafer said she filled out "female" on her passport form, but the passport she received says ... [+]
Schafer said her new passport says “male” despite her selecting “female” while filling out paperwork, and she said all of her previous forms of identification, including passports and driver’s licenses, have said female.
Schafer cited the Bureau of Consular Affairs, the agency that issues passports, which says on its website it will “only issue passports with an M or F sex marker that match the customer's biological sex at birth” and will no longer use the “X” marker for nonbinary people, citing Trump’s day-one executive order that defines sex as either male or female assigned at birth.
The actress criticized the Trump administration, stating she is “never going to stop being trans” and “a letter on a passport can’t change that.”
Schafer said she didn’t post the video to receive consolation, citing her “privilege as a celebrity trans woman who is white,” but to call awareness to “other trans women who this might also be happening to.”
On the first day of his second presidential term, Trump issued an executive order titled, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” The order directed federal agencies to recognize “two sexes, male and female,” which “are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.” The order specifies passports, as well as other forms of government-issued identification, must reflect sex assigned at birth. The order also prohibits federal funds from being used to “promote gender ideology,” which it defines as “the idea that there is a vast spectrum of genders that are disconnected from one’s sex.” Trump has issued other executive orders targeting trans people, including one that prohibits trans people from serving in the military, and another that bars trans women from participating in women’s sports.
“I don’t give a f— that they put a M on my passport. It doesn’t change really anything about me or my transness, however, it does make life a little harder,” Schafer said, adding she will likely have to out herself as trans to border patrol agents when she travels.
Trump’s executive order preventing gender markers from being changed on passports has already faced legal challenges. A group of transgender people, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Boston earlier this month alleging the policy discriminates against individuals based on sex and transgender status and infringes First Amendment rights to free speech and expression.
Transgender Americans Challenge Trump’s Passport Policy in Court (New York Times)
The US stopped allowing passport gender marker changes. Here are some of the people affected (Associated Press)