Last Friday, Hunter Schafer, actress Trans starring in the HBO series “Euphoria”, posted an eight and a half-minute video in Tiktok revealing that she had just received a new passport with a male index-almost decade after changing her.
“I was shocked,” Mrs Schafer told the video. “I just didn’t think it would really happen.”
President Trump signed an executive mandate on January 20 that called on the federal government to recognize people only from “unchanged biological classification as men or women” assigned at birth. For American trans, intesex and sex and renewal of passports, this change has caused anxiety and confusion.
Since June 2021, the Foreign Ministry had allowed Trans people to declare their sex to US passports without providing medical certification. The Agency also recently stated that it would stop issuing passports with the X-Delicate Index available since April 2022.
The US Association of Political Freedoms filed a lawsuit on February 7 against Mr Trump and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on behalf of seven US transsexuals. With this pending suit, here is what we know about how politics affects passport applications.
Who is exactly influenced by order?
It is applied to those who are gender identity different from the gender assigned at birth.
According to UCLA’s Williams Institute, there are about 1.6 million transsexual people in the United States. Although there is no clear numbering of people using the X Gender Indicators in America, there are about 5,200 people in the state of New York using the IDS index and the California motor vehicle section recently told the KCRA television station that there were 21,140 Californians using X Markers. A report published by the US Department of Health and Human Services on January 16, also estimates that the United States has over five million enlightening individuals, an umbrella for people born with anatomical or genetic characteristics that do not match the formal definition of males or women.
The executive requires the “government -issued recognition documents, including passports, visas and global entry cards” to reflect a person’s sex at birth, although valid documents are currently valid, irrespective of the gender index until they expire.
ACLU said on Tuesday that it had come into contact with more than 1,800 transgender, intersex and sex-forming people with passport applications suspended or pending. The LGBTQ Lambda Legal Civil Rights Organization had received more than 800 passports surveys since January 20th.
If you applied for a passport with x, what’s going on?
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was removed the selection of Index X, which was available without any need to support documentation from 2022, from passport applications shortly after the executive order. The “Sex Marker in Passports” tab now tells him that “if you submit a passport request requesting an x ​​index or asking for a sex index that differs from the sexual index at birth, you may experience delays receiving your passport.” He adds that the Foreign Ministry will “issue you a new passport that fits your biological sex at birth, based on your support documents and files on your previous passports”.
Although the Foreign Ministry has not issued more specific guidelines for people who have applied using a form under the name X, Laurie Lee, co -founder of Swift Passport & Visa Services in Chicago, said their applications would probably be suspended.
“My guess is that they are going to make people who have been caught in the middle request and mark the ‘male’ or ‘female’, and then, when the new application is submitted, they will receive their new passport,” Ms. Lee said. “I have no hope that they will issue a passport.”
What if you applied for a passport with an index that differs from your sexual sex?
Although the Foreign Ministry said it would only issue “passports with a sex or f sex index that matches the customer’s biological sex at birth”, the imposition of this policy has caused confusion and inconsistent.
Some applications of trans people trans seem to be caught in the void, pending or suspended on the Ministry of Foreign Audit website. Westley EBL, 26, said he had to get in touch with his colleague Eleanor Holmes Norton in Washington, DC, to get any information on the renewal of the passport he had submitted on January 14.
Ms Norton’s office was relaying to him that the applications for a gender -change passport are suspended indefinitely, adding “that the Foreign Ministry will not be able to share more information by the end of March or even later”. (A Foreign Ministry spokesman refused to comment, citing the laws on privacy and restrictions.)
There are others, such as Ms Schafer, who have already received new passports that have returned to their sexual sex.
Lily Powers, a 29 -year -old woman transaction in New York, changed her gender index from an M to an X in early 2024. After taking the surgery confirmed by the sex last October, she thought it would make sense to correct this indicator to a f, to fit her. Was submitted to her application on January 8.
However, when she received her new passport on February 4, she had a M.
“It was an empty folder with the new document,” Ms Powers said. “There was no explanation of why they gave me a M Marker instead of what I asked for.”
What are the risks to travel with a passport that has an incorrect gender index?
People traveling with passports that do not reflect their current appearance, legal name and sex often encounter situations ranging from unpleasant to humiliating or dangerous.
“For trans, intersex and non -variable travelers, there is now this incredibly increased and very well -fundamental fear that we can challenge, hold on, confiscated documents, only because of who we are,” said Arli Christian, a senior ACLU policy adviser for ACLU
In her video, Ms Schafer raised similar concerns. She said she would travel abroad on her new passport this week and was preparing for complications.
“I’m sure he is going to come with the need to get out of patrol agents,” he said, “much more often than I would like or is really necessary.”
Follow Travel New York Times on Instagram and Sign up to our Travel Shipment Newsletter To get expert advice on the trip more smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Do you dream of a future getaway or just armchair? See our own 52 parts to go in 2025.
