If you’ve been paying attention to the news, you’re probably aware that photo IDs are a hot-button issue within the trans community. The Trump administration has made it so that transgender people are unable to change their gender marker on identifying documents, including birth certificates, passports, or social security cards, to one that matches their gender identity.
Currently, the ACLU is suing the administration for passport restrictions. Transgender model and actress Hunter Schafer revealed that when she applied for a new passport, her sex marker was changed to male.
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It’s brutal out there
As a trans woman, this is an outrage, and I am honestly worn out by the endless attempts on the part of morally corrupt political organizations to advance their status in society by attacking my rights.
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To the people who say it’s just a letter on your ID and therefore not a big deal, please read the room. First off, you don’t have any idea what dysphoria is like or how people are treated in society for being openly trans. Secondly, it’s not going to stop here. Policing our IDs and official documents is just the start.
In a TikTok posted by @SydeneySeraph, she brought up a news story from 2015 where a transgender woman was refused an ID because she was wearing makeup and didn’t “look like a man.”
In September 2015, Alexandra Glover of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, went to the Louisiana OMV to have her driver’s license photo updated to more accurately represent her appearance since transitioning, rather than opting for an official gender marker ID change.
When she tried to update her ID, they turned her away because she was wearing makeup, and that led them to conclude that she was “misrepresenting” herself.
One worker told her “If you have makeup on or anything like that you’re supposed to take all that off, because you are actually a man.”
Eventually, the OMV did swallow their pride, and while they didn’t change their policy, they allowed transgender people to have their ID photo represent how they appear in their day-to-day life, most likely done to avoid this being a national issue and getting the higher courts involved.
Now, we’re seeing the exact same logic at play in red states eager to adopt Trump’s anti-trans agenda. The point is that it was never just about gender markers. It is and always will be about trying to remove trans people from public life. If you don’t meet the government’s binary definition of gender or if you’re assigned male at birth, you’re mandated to dress a certain way, have a certain haircut, or even look a certain way, and if you don’t, then you don’t get to have a proper ID. You can’t open a bank account, apply for certain jobs, or try to leave the country just because you seem a bit too flamboyant.
This isn’t just a strike against trans life and future in this country—it’s fascism writ large.
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