‘We are never going to stop existing’: Hunter Schafer called out Trump’s passport policy on TikTok

“I had a bit of a harsh reality check today, and felt like it’s important to share with whoever is listening,” model and actress Hunter Schafer said in an eight-minute video posted on TikTok last week. 

Speaking in a rare direct-to-camera clip, the Euphoria actress held up her new passport and reflected on what it said about trans rights under the Trump administration.

Schafer explained that the gender marker on her passport had been changed, a direct consequence of President Donald Trump’s January 20 executive order. The order declared that the United States would “recognize two sexes, male and female,” and “these sexes are not changeable.” It added that documents like passports and visas must “accurately reflect the holder’s sex.”

Schafer also referenced the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs policy under Trump’s executive order, which states, in part: “We will no longer issue U.S. passports or Consular Reports of Birth Abroad (CRBAs) with an X marker. We will only issue passports with an M or F sex marker that match the customer’s biological sex at birth.”

“My initial reaction to this, because our president is a lot of talk, was like, ‘I’ll believe it when I see it,’ and today, I saw it on my new passport,” Schafer said in the video, which has already been viewed over one million times.

Schafer had her gender listed as female on official documents since updating her driver’s license as a teenager. But after her passport was stolen while filming in Barcelona, she applied for a routine replacement—only to find that the new document listed her gender as male.

“I’m not making this post to fearmonger or to create drama or receive consolation,” Schafer continued. “I don’t need it, but I do think it’s worth posting to sort of note the reality of the situation and that it is actually happening.”

She said the new passport marker would not change anything about her identity. “I don’t go give a f— 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,” she said.

Next week, she’ll be using the passport for the first time and added that she anticipates having to out herself to Border Patrol agents and officials. “I just want to say trans people are beautiful,” she said. “We are never going to stop existing. I’m never gonna stop being trans. A letter and a passport can’t change that.”

https://www.fastcompany.com/91283839/hunter-schafer-called-out-trump-passport-policy-on-tiktok?partner=rss&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss