Transgender actor Hunter Schafer has revealed that, for the first time, the sex stated on her passport is listed as male rather than female, following an executive order issued by President Donald Trump. According to a report in People magazine, in an honest TikTok video shared on Friday, the 26-year-old Euphoria star spoke about the “harsh realities” she encountered while obtaining a new passport after her previous one was stolen. She referred to one of the executive orders Trump signed in January on his first day in office. The order declared that the United States would “recognise two sexes, male and female,” and that “these sexes are not changeable.” It further stated that official documents such as passports and visas must “accurately reflect the holder’s sex.”
In her video, Schafer explained that the Bureau of Consular Affairs had put a hold on passport applications and renewals that request a sex different from the one assigned at birth. According to the agency’s website, “We will only issue passports with an M or F sex marker that match the customer’s biological sex at birth.”
In her eight-minute video, Schafer admitted that she initially dismissed the executive order, believing Trump was “all talk.” However, after receiving her new passport, she discovered that her sex was listed as M for male. She pointed out that all her identification documents had been marked F for female since she was a teenager, dating back to when she first obtained her driving licence. She explained that she needed a new passport after her previous one was stolen while she was filming in Barcelona last year. She recalled visiting a federal passport agency in Los Angeles to apply for a replacement and going through the usual process, which included selecting female as her sex.
“When [my passport] was picked up today and I opened it up, they had changed the marker to male,” she said. “I was shocked. I just didn’t think it was actually going to happen.”
Schafer acknowledged her “privilege” as a White, celebrity trans woman, emphasising that the gender marker change “still happened” to her. She added, “I don’t know exactly what changed as far as the processing goes. This is the first time this has happened to me since I changed my gender marker, we’re coming up on a decade now. I do believe it is a direct result of the administration our country is currently operating under.”
She expressed her fears about how these policies would be enforced. “There’s a lot of talk and then these things start happening and we start to normalise the circumstances we’re under. I just feel like it’s important to share that it’s not just talk, this is real and it’s happening.”
“I don’t give a f**k that they put an M on my passport,” Schafer added. “It doesn’t change anything about me or my transness. However, it does make life a little harder.”
She mentioned that she would be travelling abroad for the first time next week with her new passport and was concerned that she might have to disclose her identity to customs and border officials more frequently than she would prefer or than is necessary. Schafer conveyed her solidarity with others in the transgender community who might be facing similar challenges now or in the future.
She concluded with a message of encouragement: “Trans people are beautiful. We are never going to stop existing, I’m never gonna stop being trans. A letter on a passport can’t change that and f— this administration. I don’t really have an answer on what to do about this, but I feel it was important to share. This is real.”
