US trans actress Hunter Schafer slams Trump govt after passport gender change
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Trans actress Hunter Schafer is protesting against the change to her passport gender marker, which now identifies her as male.
PHOTO: AFP
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WASHINGTON – US trans actress Hunter Schafer, known for HBO hit show Euphoria, has said her passport gender marker was changed to male, slamming the Trump administration which has demonised any recognition of gender diversity.
Ms Schafer blamed the policies of US President Donald Trump for the modification of her gender – despite having identity documents marked female “coming up on a decade now” – in a TikTok story published on Feb 20 and rebroadcast as a video on Feb 21.
“I filled everything out just like I normally would. I put ‘female’, and when it was picked up today and I opened it up, they had changed the marker to male,” she said, brandishing her passport and explaining that she had to renew the document after it was stolen in 2024.
Mr Trump in his first days in office declared the government would recognise only two genders – man and woman – and has targeted transgender people
According to the State Department, under an executive order on what the Trump administration calls “gender ideology extremism”, the Bureau of Consular Affairs would stop issuing
“We will only issue passports with an M or F sex marker that match the customer’s biological sex at birth,” the website says.
Ms Schafer said her gender on her birth certificate has not been changed to female, leading her to believe that “the agencies that are in charge of passports... are now required to cross-reference birth certificates”.
“This is the first time this has happened to me since I changed my gender marker... and I do believe it is a direct result of the administration our country is currently operating under.”
She said she was “shocked” to see the “M” on her passport, and that she was spurred to post about it to “note the reality of the situation and that it is actually happening”.
Despite her concerns, Ms Schafer was defiant.
Trans people “are never going to stop existing. I’m never gonna stop being trans, a letter in a passport can’t change that and f*** this administration,” the actress in her twenties said, speaking firmly into the camera on her phone.
Transgender rights have become a hot-button issue in the United States, despite trans people being a small minority of the population.
Republicans hammered Democrats on transgender issues ahead of the 2024 election, capitalising on a broader culture war over LGBTQ rights. AFP
