I need to set the record straight for queer people who don’t have a transphobic government holding their birth certificate hostage.
In the United States the average native-born citizen can prove their definitive citizenship in terms of eligibility for work through either a birth certificate or a passport. Birth certificates are legally owned and issued by the government of the state you are born in.
I was born in Texas. Texas has banned trans people from changing our birth certificates to match our name and gender. Texas will put me on a list if I reveal I am trans in any legal way, including having ever applied to change my gender marker. I cannot change my birth certificate.
This means the only way I can prove my eligibility for work is with my passport. Without my passport, I can’t legally apply for work.
That is why the executive order banning trans people from changing our passports to match our gender identity is such a huge problem. It’s not boo hoo I can’t leave the country to go on vacation, it’s stripping me of my labor rights and daring me to work in a sweat shop if I want to survive.
And say I did want to cross the border because oh, I don’t know, fleeing to seek asylum in a new country suddenly becomes very important—wouldn’t it be a good idea to have a passport that matches my identification to show local authorities, so they don’t deport me back to America?
I know not everyone can read legalese, but I need the LGBT community to at least try to stay up to date and connect the dots on the legal ramifications of orders like this if we are going to fight back. Because frankly, my passport was recently threatened, and I was not impressed by the ignorance I was met with from cis gays and trans folks who hail from the east/west coast.
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