Euphoria actress and Hollywood star Hunter Schafer shared her "harsh reality check" after her new passport changed her gender marker to "M." The transgender actor shared an 8-and-a-half-minute video talking about the experience to social media on Friday.
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"On the first day of Trump's presidency, he signed an executive order to declare only two genders recognized by the state, male and female, assigned at birth," Schafer says. "As a result of this, the Bureau of Consular Affairs has frozen passport applications requesting gender marking changes or renewals" that defer from the applicant's gender assigned at birth.
While she initially thought, "I'll believe it when I see it," Schafer had a rude awakening when she picked up her new passport and was shocked to see "M" instead of "F" for her gender, the first time that's happened since her teenage years.
"I'm not making this post to fear-monger, or to create drama, or receive consolation, I don't need it," she said. "But I do think it's worth posting to sort of note the reality of the situation and that it's happening. I was shocked. I just didn't think it was actually going to happen."
She goes on to share that the bag with her old passport was stolen in Barcelona recently, so she was forced to order a new one. And despite having her gender markers changed on her various identifications for about a decade, Schafer never updated her gender on her birth certificate, cueing the marker's reversion.
"It's not just talk," she said. "This is real. And it's happening. No one, no matter their circumstance, no matter how wealthy or white or pretty or whatever, is excluded. This is real."
But resistance is always an option. "I don't give a f*ck that they put an 'M' on my passport," Schafer added.
"It doesn't change really anything about me or my transness. However, it does make life a little harder. I'm pretty sure it's gonna come along with having to out myself to border patrol agents and that whole gig much more often than I would like to or is really necessary."
Schafer concluded her video with an uplifting message for the transgender community.
"Trans people are beautiful. We are never going to stop existing. We are never going to stop being trans. A letter on a passport can't change that… and f*ck this administration."
Schafer uploaded the video to her TikTok story, but it was quickly removed. Links to the video read, "Page not available." It's unclear if Schafer removed it herself, or if it was taken down by TikTok.
As of this writing, links to Schafer's TikTok page have led to various error messages until her page re-appears with only three uploaded videos.
