Thread by @zenalbatross

Wow. The U.S. passport office just called and told me that due to an “error,” the government has *retroactively invalidated* the change of gender marker it authorized on my passport last year. They won’t renew my passport w/ correct name & gender until i submit a new doctors note

I’ve been hearing horror stories about the gov’t refusing to renew trans people’s passports and demanding they “re-verify” their gender, so i included a copy of my doctors letter just in case. Apparently that wasn’t enough. They now want me to redraft w/ diff language. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Essentially the govt is claiming the doctors letter — which uses the same language as hundreds of other letters my clinic gives out to trans patients — doesn’t meet requirements for a passport gender change

I have a feeling we are about to see more of this gatekeeping very soon.

Reminder: You are who you say you are. Any person or government which claims authority over your identity is illegitimate (read: all governments)

Here is another, worse case from a month ago where a trans woman was forced to “prove” her gender change -

https://twitter.com/danniaskini/status/1012835342183874560?s=21

To be clear - the government *already authorized my passport gender marker change last year* — even if the requirements didn’t change, my trans status triggered a review that resulted in my *entirely unrelated* passport name change application being delayed.

This is gatekeeping.

i do appreciate the intent of folks saying “call your senator” etc, but asking a trans person to have any faith in this political system is kind of a fucking joke.

this isn’t about one administration; it’s about decades of anti-trans animus manifesting as administrative violence

Update: spoke to staff at my clinic. it is pretty clear to us that the government is now rejecting boilerplate language that has been used successfully for years. the govt now specifically demands the MD who signs the letter state they have a “doctor patient relationship” w/ you.