There’s One Part of Our Passports That Seems Totally Normal. Until You Learn Its Surprising History—and Concerning Future.
Equal justice apparently isn't equal anymore.
Outward
How the Passport Became a Linchpin of Trump’s Gender Panic Plot
Passport gender markers had long been the easiest government document for trans people to update. Losing that ability will be costly for everyone.
By
Sohini Desai
Jan 24, 20265:50 AM
Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images, Encrier/iStock/Getty Images Plus, Xphotoz/iStock, and Getty Images Plus.
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In a functional sense, I’m an any-pronouns person. At my parents’ house, I will always be she/her. With friends, I’m a they/them. And at the Atlantic Terminal Mall in Brooklyn, I’m a he/him teenager who must be escorted out of Sephora for shopping without an adult present. (I haven’t been a teen since the 2010s, so this is how I found out that malls are increasingly banning young people. Showing Brooklyn’s own Paul Blart my “Sex: F” driver’s license, which features a pre-transition ID photo, did not improve the situation.) This mixed bag is a constant reminder: Gender is in the eye of the beholder.
My gender bag has been especially mixed at the airport in recent years. To Transportation Security Administration agents and passport control officers, I’ve looked like a guy who stole some girl’s ID. And the only thing stopping me from joining the crimes-in-the-sky club, I guess, was the “Sex: F” marker that confirmed their suspicions. It’s never been too extreme, but I’ve had my share of airport confrontations—been sent out of security lines, tried my luck yelling “I’M TRANSGENDER” at more than a few agents. Luckily, I was among those who were able to take advantage of the brief window of time between July and November of last year when a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from enforcing its policy requiring gender markers on government IDs to match a person’s sex assigned “at conception.” I secured an “M” passport just before the Supreme Court overruled the injunction, hoping to never experience another gender interrogation at an airport again.
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This ID policy is just one of many concurrent anti-trans assaults enacted or worsened by the Trump administration, including forcefully detransitioning incarcerated people, transferring trans women into men’s prisons, and plotting to revoke Medicaid funding for any hospital that provides gender-affirming care to trans youth. Without question, there are…
Equal justice apparently isn't equal anymore.
Outward
How the Passport Became a Linchpin of Trump’s Gender Panic Plot
Passport gender markers had long been the easiest government document for trans people to update. Losing that ability will be costly for everyone.
By
Sohini Desai
Jan 24, 20265:50 AM
Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images, Encrier/iStock/Getty Images Plus, Xphotoz/iStock, and Getty Images Plus.
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Share
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Copy Link
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Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily.
In a functional sense, I’m an any-pronouns person. At my parents’ house, I will always be she/her. With friends, I’m a they/them. And at the Atlantic Terminal Mall in Brooklyn, I’m a he/him teenager who must be escorted out of Sephora for shopping without an adult present. (I haven’t been a teen since the 2010s, so this is how I found out that malls are increasingly banning young people. Showing Brooklyn’s own Paul Blart my “Sex: F” driver’s license, which features a pre-transition ID photo, did not improve the situation.) This mixed bag is a constant reminder: Gender is in the eye of the beholder.
My gender bag has been especially mixed at the airport in recent years. To Transportation Security Administration agents and passport control officers, I’ve looked like a guy who stole some girl’s ID. And the only thing stopping me from joining the crimes-in-the-sky club, I guess, was the “Sex: F” marker that confirmed their suspicions. It’s never been too extreme, but I’ve had my share of airport confrontations—been sent out of security lines, tried my luck yelling “I’M TRANSGENDER” at more than a few agents. Luckily, I was among those who were able to take advantage of the brief window of time between July and November of last year when a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from enforcing its policy requiring gender markers on government IDs to match a person’s sex assigned “at conception.” I secured an “M” passport just before the Supreme Court overruled the injunction, hoping to never experience another gender interrogation at an airport again.
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This ID policy is just one of many concurrent anti-trans assaults enacted or worsened by the Trump administration, including forcefully detransitioning incarcerated people, transferring trans women into men’s prisons, and plotting to revoke Medicaid funding for any hospital that provides gender-affirming care to trans youth. Without question, there are…
There’s One Part of Our Passports That Seems Totally Normal. Until You Learn Its Surprising History—and Concerning Future.
Equal justice apparently isn't equal anymore.
Outward
How the Passport Became a Linchpin of Trump’s Gender Panic Plot
Passport gender markers had long been the easiest government document for trans people to update. Losing that ability will be costly for everyone.
By
Sohini Desai
Jan 24, 20265:50 AM
Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images, Encrier/iStock/Getty Images Plus, Xphotoz/iStock, and Getty Images Plus.
Copy Link
Share
Share
Comment
Copy Link
Share
Share
Comment
Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily.
In a functional sense, I’m an any-pronouns person. At my parents’ house, I will always be she/her. With friends, I’m a they/them. And at the Atlantic Terminal Mall in Brooklyn, I’m a he/him teenager who must be escorted out of Sephora for shopping without an adult present. (I haven’t been a teen since the 2010s, so this is how I found out that malls are increasingly banning young people. Showing Brooklyn’s own Paul Blart my “Sex: F” driver’s license, which features a pre-transition ID photo, did not improve the situation.) This mixed bag is a constant reminder: Gender is in the eye of the beholder.
My gender bag has been especially mixed at the airport in recent years. To Transportation Security Administration agents and passport control officers, I’ve looked like a guy who stole some girl’s ID. And the only thing stopping me from joining the crimes-in-the-sky club, I guess, was the “Sex: F” marker that confirmed their suspicions. It’s never been too extreme, but I’ve had my share of airport confrontations—been sent out of security lines, tried my luck yelling “I’M TRANSGENDER” at more than a few agents. Luckily, I was among those who were able to take advantage of the brief window of time between July and November of last year when a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from enforcing its policy requiring gender markers on government IDs to match a person’s sex assigned “at conception.” I secured an “M” passport just before the Supreme Court overruled the injunction, hoping to never experience another gender interrogation at an airport again.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
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This ID policy is just one of many concurrent anti-trans assaults enacted or worsened by the Trump administration, including forcefully detransitioning incarcerated people, transferring trans women into men’s prisons, and plotting to revoke Medicaid funding for any hospital that provides gender-affirming care to trans youth. Without question, there are…
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