“Euphoria” actress, Hunter Schafer, speaks out after a new gender change from female to male is made on her passport.
“I think that it’s dehumanizing and belittling to work so hard to live freely in a society that accepts you and have to have a leader with a mixed mindset that goes against everything you are,” said Indigo Williams-Brown, a third-year political science major, environmental minor and Mx. LGBTQ+ caucus.
Schafer, who is transgender, talked about the incident in a TikTok video where she explained that after receiving her new passport, she saw her gender had been changed from female to male, per USA Today.
“I had a little bit of a harsh reality check,” said Schafer in the video.
This would come weeks after Trump’s January 20th executive order stating that the United States government will only recognize a person’s biological sex at birth. The order revoked a 2022 Biden-era rule in which the Department of State made it possible for people applying for American passports to select their gender with an “X.”
“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,” said Schafer.
Schafer previously had her passport marked with female, however, after losing her passport in Spain, she filed for a new one, with her new passport having the gender change. Schafer’s new passport contributes to an ongoing conversation about the importance of transgender lives in the U.S.
“Trans lives have never been truly safe, and things like this put an even bigger target on the transgender community’s back. It’s truly sad”, said Williams Brown.
This new restriction in gender selection on passports is just one change made during Trump's term amongst the controversy over transgender people.
“I hate that this has been happening to the community. What people do with their lives, what they do with themselves, how they choose to present themselves is truly no one’s business but their own. And the idea that it says something about them negatively when it doesn’t,” said Naraya Sullivan, a third-year elementary education major and secretary of the LGBTQ+ caucus.
Schafer has continued to advocate for the transgender community, saying, “I just want to say that trans people are beautiful. We are never going to stop existing. I’m never going to stop being trans. A letter and a passport won’t change that.”
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