AUSTIN (KXAN) — An Austin woman who tried to update her passport with a new last name said she unexpectedly received a new passport that listed a different sex marker than her previous one.
Alexis Pratchett, who is transgender, filed the name update in December, but an issue required her to re-submit paperwork in early January. That caused a delay in the agency’s processing of her passport.
“By the time [the State Department] got around to it, it was the new administration, and they’d already put out their executive order on sex,” she said. “So I wasn’t even sure if I was going to receive my documentation back, but when I did, about a week ago at this point, it came back with my former gender marker, which I would definitely consider wrong at this point.”
Pratchett said she corrected her passport’s gender marker four years ago. All of her other documents have been updated via legal process to reflect her gender.
“I provided a court order with proof of the name change,” Pratchett said. “It was just the name change. It did not include a gender marker change anywhere on that paperwork.”
She said she feels that the State Department making such a change to her documents “feels incredibly stupid.” She’s concerned that this could cause problems if she wanted to travel internationally or chose to move out of the country.
KXAN reached out to the State Department for comment, asking if the agency would explain why the change happened.
“Even if my passport has an ‘M’ on it, it does not change the fact that I go day-to-day in society as a woman, that people see me and treat me as a woman,” she said.
She explained that paperwork discrepancy creates “confusion” that always carries the possibility of someone escalating to violence, she said.
“You do all of this just for, like, basic safety, right? It really does feel good to…not have to keep pulling out this card with a name that isn’t yours and a gender that isn’t yours,” Pratchett said. “Taking out an ID that shows [someone] that I am trans, it’s not something I want them to know. It’s not something I want a stranger with a gun to know. It’s not something I want a cashier at the store to know.”
Another transgender American who received an unconsented change was “Euphoria” actress Hunter Schafer. She had applied after her passport was stolen in Spain; she received a passport with its sex marker changed, she said in a TikTok video.
Situations like Pratchett’s and Schafer’s are ones that legal nonprofit Lambda Legal said it’s looking for, during an online information session Wednesday.
“For many trans people, a passport has for a long time represented an avenue to an accurate identity document where state laws or policies prohibit updating driver’s licenses or other state ID to affirm and match a person’s accurate gender and identity,” said Carl Charles, a Lambda Legal senior attorney.
Currently, Lambda Legal recommends that transgender people should avoid applying for or changing their passports, if possible. That may change pending a lawsuit brought by the ACLU against the Trump administration over transgender American’s passports.
“If there’s some discrepancy in documents, or the passport officials are exercising a really significant degree of scrutiny, they may request additional information that might allow them to essentially profile people as transgender and then refuse to issue them correct gender markers on their passport,” Charles said.
According to the White House, existing passports will remain valid. But that doesn’t cover Americans who need to make changes or order a replacement.
These actions by the Trump administration’s State Department may be spurred by the president’s executive order. However, the agency’s policies and rules haven’t officially changed, with the new proposed rules listed in the Federal Register for public comment until March 20.
- Application for a U.S. Passport
- U.S. Passport Renewal Application for Eligible Individuals
- Correction, Name Change to Passport Issued 1 Year Ago or Less, and Limited Passport Replacement
Nearly 12,700 comments have already been submitted across the three proposed rules, as of Wednesday afternoon.
