Hunter Schafer is shedding light on a frustrating and deeply personal experience after discovering that her passport gender marker was changed to male—without her consent. The 26-year-old Euphoria star, who is trans, has had her gender listed as female on official documents since she was a teenager. However, after renewing her passport following a theft, she was shocked to see the unexpected alteration.
Hunter believes this change is a direct result of a policy enacted by former president Donald Trump, which restricts gender recognition on federal documents. The reality of the situation hit hard, and she took to TikTok to share her experience, calling it a “harsh reality check.”
In her TikTok video, Hunter explained that passport applications for trans individuals had been paused due to the executive order—a policy she initially didn’t think would be strictly enforced.
“My initial reaction to this—because our president is a lot of talk—was like, I’ll believe it when I see it. And today, I saw it,” she said, holding up her altered passport.
Hunter detailed how she filled out her renewal paperwork as usual, marking her gender as female. However, when the new passport arrived, she was stunned to see it had been changed.
“I never had my birth certificate changed, so this has led me to believe … the agencies who are in charge of passports and this sort of thing are now required to cross-reference birth certificates. Or, I don’t know exactly what changed as far as the processing goes. But this is the first time this has happened to me since I changed my gender marker. We’re coming up on a decade now.”
Hunter made it clear that she wasn’t trying to instill fear but felt it was important to highlight the reality of the situation and how it could affect others in the trans community.
“I do think it’s worth posting to note the reality of the situation and that it’s actually happening,” she said.
She continued, “I do believe it is a direct result of the administration our country is currently operating under. There’s a lot of talk, and then things start happening, and we start to normalize the circumstances we’re under. And I just feel like it’s important to share that it’s not just talk. That 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.”
Despite the upsetting change, Hunter made it clear that she isn’t personally shaken by the letter on her passport.
“I don’t give a f-ck that they put an ‘M’ on my passport.” However, she acknowledged that this change will likely lead to more difficult conversations while traveling.
“I mean, I haven’t tested it out yet; I’ll find out next week when I have to travel abroad with my new passport. But I’m pretty sure it’s going to come along with having to out myself to, like, border patrol agents and that whole gig much more often than I would like to or is really necessary.”
Hunter ended her message on an empowering note, reaffirming her identity and the strength of the trans community.
“Trans people are beautiful,” she said. “We are never going to stop existing. I am never going to stop being trans. A letter on a passport can’t change that. And f-ck this administration. I don’t really have an answer on what to do about this, but I feel it was important to share. This is real. So um, yeah, f-ck.”
