American actress Hunter Schafer said she was “shocked” to find the gender marker on her passport listed as male, a forced change that comes after the Trump administration declared it would only recognize two genders.
Schafer, one of the most visible transgender actresses in Hollywood, said she picked up her new passport on Thursday to find the gender marker written as “M”, despite her having listed female on her application.
“I was shocked. I was shocked. I don’t know … I just didn’t think it was actually going to happen,” she said in an eight-minute TikTok, holding up her new passport.
“I just feel like it’s important to share, it’s not just talk [from the administration]. This is real and it’s happening. No one, no matter their circumstance, no matter how wealthy or white or pretty or whatever … is excluded. This is real.”
The new passport policy stems from one of U.S. Donald Trump’s first executive orders after taking office in January.
Transgender people in the U.S. say they’re worried about what’s to come after President Donald Trump signed an executive order saying his government only recognizes two sexes that are assigned at birth.
The order declared federal agencies will only recognize “two sexes, male and female,” which “are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.” The order said passports and other forms of government-issued identification must reflect the sex assigned at birth.
It does not acknowledge intersex people, who are born with a combination of male and female traits and include an estimated 1.7 per cent of the population. It said the government would not recognize gender identity, or how someone identifies and represents themselves in society, on federal documents.
The website for the Bureau of Consular Affairs, the agency that issues passports, said 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 order.
Schafer said her previous identification to date, including old passports, had listed “female” ever since she got her driver’s licence as a teenager. She applied to renew her passport in Los Angeles after her old one was stolen while she was filming in Barcelona last year.
Schafer said she didn’t post about her new passport on TikTok to receive consolation, citing her own privilege “as a celebrity trans woman” who is white and passing, meaning she is perceived as the gender with which she identifies. She said she wanted to prove to the public that the administration’s order has taken effect and underscore the potential repercussions for other transgender people.
“I also want to say, I don’t give a f–k that they put an M on my passport. It doesn’t change really anything about me or my transness however, it does make life a little harder,” said Schafer, who is best known for her role as Jules Vaughn in HBO’s Euphoria.
U.S. President Donald Trump has announced his intention to roll back transgender rights and diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Queer rights lawyer barbara findlay, a member of the group Lawyers Against Transphobia, explains what the impact might be in Canada.
Personally, she said she will likely have to out herself to border patrol officers when she travels abroad. Seven transgender American citizens who sued Trump and the State Department in federal court this month said the order also exposes them to potential harassment or violence when they travel outside the United States.
The lawsuit filed in the District Court of Massachusetts claimed the new passport policy violates their constitutional rights by discriminating on the basis of sex and infringing on privacy.
The Trump administration has until mid-March to file a response in court.
Canadians who do not identify as female or male have been able to list their gender as “X” on their passports since 2019. About 3,600 Canadians have the marker on their passports, according to the federal government.
The Canadian government website warns people with gender-neutral passports that “you may face entry restrictions into some countries that do not recognize your gender.”
CBC News asked the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency what Canadians with an X on their passports can expect if they try to enter the country in the wake of Trump’s executive order. The agency referred questions to the White House press office, which has yet to respond.
