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Hunter Schafer’s passport and the futility of erasing Trans people

Credit: Wikimedia Commons
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Brighton, UK
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A government document won’t change reality. But it has the capacity to endanger lives. 

Hunter Schafer, a hugely successful actor whose showreel includes Euphoria, a leading turn in the latest Hunger Games movie, and a stint in the upcoming Blade Runner TV adaption, woke up last week to find herself legally male.

Not in any biological sense, nor in any way that reflected Schafer’s reality, but in the cold, bureaucratic form of a government document.

‘I was shocked’, the actor said in a TikTok video, holding up her new passport to display the ‘M’ marker that now lists her as a male American citizen. ‘I just didn’t think it was going to happen’.

The ‘it’ in question is President Trump’s new executive order recognising only two sexes and declaring that they cannot be changed. Consequently, the US government will now only recognise sex assigned at birth to determine gender markers for American citizens.

Transgender people, as far as this administration is concerned, are a clerical error.

‘I had a bit of a harsh reality check today, and felt like it’s important to share with whoever is listening,’ Schafer continued. Since transitioning as a teenager, Schafer has been outspoken about her trans identity and the rights of trans people, and is now arguably one of the most famous trans people on the planet.

Schafer admitted she thought Trump’s plans to eradicate what he described as ‘gender ideology extremism’ as ‘just talk’. ‘I was like ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’ she told her followers. ‘[but] today, I saw it on my new passport’.

It’s the first time any legislative documents, including her driving license and previous passports, have listed Schafer as ‘male’ since her teens.

With this dystopian attempt to erase trans identities, the Trump administration has made it clear they intend on waging war against freedom of expression and human rights. Eliminating the ‘X’ gender marker option on federal documents, the government is promising to invalidate existing gender marker changes, forcing trans people to carry passports and IDs that contradict their identities.

Regardless, Schafer remains defiant. She made her views on the clerical update clear on social media, where she proclaimed ‘I don’t give a f*** that they put an M on my passport. It doesn’t really change anything about me or my transness. However, it does make my life a little harder.’

But this kind of legal mismatch is more than just an inconvenience. It exposes trans people to greater scrutiny, harassment, and violence in a world already primed to doubt their existence.

Schafer herself isn’t blind to the privileges that have afforded her the platform to speak out on trans struggles. The fact that she – wealthy, white, conventionally attractive, and famous – could have her identity revoked by a government agency speaks volumes about the reality trans people face under policies designed not to serve, but to erase. And if this happens to someone with fame, resources, and an audience of millions, what happens to the trans people without them?

‘I just feel like it’s important to share that it’s not just talk’ Schafer told her audience. ‘This is real and it’s happening and no-one – no matter their circumstance, no matter how wealthy or white or pretty or whatever – is excluded.’

The cruelty isn’t incidental. These policies are designed to reinforce a rigid, biologically deterministic view of gender, a view that has never actually aligned with history, science, or the lived experiences of millions of people.

From hijras in South Asia to Two-Spirit identities among Indigenous North American tribes, gender diversity has existed across cultures and centuries. Erasing it on paper won’t change that. What it will do is make life harder, scarier, and more dangerous for those who don’t fit into a government-mandated binary.

Schafer’s decision to speak openly about her experience has garnered widespread support across social media.

Beneath a Dazed article spotlighting Schafer’s Tik Tok video, comments pooled in offering condolences and empathy. ‘Stay strong we are millions with you’ wrote one user.

The outpouring of frustration has underscored a growing awareness of just how insidious these policies are – not just for trans people, but for anyone who believes in bodily autonomy and the right to self-determination.

There’s a strange and particular irony in watching an administration go to such great lengths to erase something it insists isn’t real. If trans people were truly an invention of progressive ideology, why is so much effort being poured into legislating them out of existence?

Schafer’s story is a high-profile example of a much deeper, more systemic issue. Not everyone affected by these policies has the platform to speak out. Many will suffer quietly, facing humiliation at airport security, losing access to necessary healthcare, or being denied jobs and housing because their documents don’t match their identities.

But as Shcafer and her supporters continue to point out, trans people exist. They always have. They always will. The real question is not whether the government can erase them, but whether the rest of us will let it try.

Writer Brighton, UK

I’m Flo, (She/Her) a remote writer at Thred. I recently completed a Masters in Visual Anthropology, and seek to interrogate the ways digital spaces can amplify marginalised voices in the arts and cultural sectors. Follow me on LinkedIn or ping me some feedback via email.

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