The Urgent Fight for Transgender Rights Under the Trump Administration

A Mother’s Quest to Protect Her Transgender Daughter

On the day after President Donald Trump returned to office, Lisa Suhay of Norfolk, Virginia, took her 21-year-old transgender daughter, Mellow, to a local passport office. The urgency of the visit was driven by a new executive order signed by Trump, which narrowly defined gender as strictly male or female, rejecting the recognition of transgender identities. For Mellow, obtaining a passport had become a critical step in ensuring her safety and freedom, should conditions for transgender individuals in the U.S. become unbearable under the new administration.

Mellow’s family feared that the federal government’s increasingly hostile stance toward transgender people could escalate, making it necessary for her to have a way to leave the country. “If the worst was to come to worst and things were to threaten my life,” Mellow said, “I would have some way out.” The new policy created confusion and emotional pain for Mellow and others seeking passports, as it forced them to choose between truthfully representing their gender or complying with the restrictive rules.

The State Department’s Swift Enforcement of the New Policy

The State Department quickly aligned with Trump’s executive order, halting the issuance of passports with the “X” gender marker, which is preferred by many nonbinary individuals. The department also stopped allowing people to update their gender markers on existing passports or apply for new ones that reflected their true identities rather than the sex assigned at birth. Applications that had already been submitted for gender marker changes were put on hold, leaving many in limbo.

The State Department further removed information for transgender and intersex travelers from its website, replacing the “LGBTQI+” section with “LGB,” effectively erasing any acknowledgment of transgender individuals. For Mellow, this meant checking the “male” box on her passport application, despite identifying as transgender and having a state-issued driver’s license that reflected her true identity. “We had to swear an oath to the fact that the information we presented was true, even if what we had to do was not truthful to ourselves,” she said, describing the emotional toll of the experience.

Trump’s Broader Assault on Transgender Rights

The passport policy was just one of several actions taken by the Trump administration to roll back the rights and legal recognition of transgender, intersex, and nonbinary individuals. The same executive order that redefined gender sought to bar transgender women from being housed in women’s prisons and could pave the way for further discrimination in the military, healthcare, and sports. Additional orders aimed to restrict access to gender-affirming care for minors and exclude transgender girls and women from participating in female sports competitions.

These actions have been met with strong opposition from civil rights groups, including the ACLU, which filed a lawsuit challenging the passport policy. The lawsuit argues that the policy discriminates against transgender individuals based on their sex and gender identity, violating their rights to equal protection, privacy, and free speech. It also contends that the abrupt change was implemented without the required 60-day notice and comment period, further highlighting the administration’s disregard for due process.

A Family’s Struggle for Recognition and Safety

Elise Flatland, a mother of four from Olathe, Kansas, is among those directly impacted by the new policies. She has been waiting for months for a passport for her 12-year-old transgender son, whose application was submitted alongside those of his siblings in December. While the other passports have been approved, her son’s remains pending. The delay has caused significant concern, as the family hopes to travel abroad for gender-affirming care if it becomes unavailable in the U.S. due to increasing restrictions.

Flatland’s son currently has no government-issued document that reflects his true gender identity, as a 2023 Kansas law prevents changes to birth certificates. Obtaining a passport with his correct gender marker would not only provide him with a vital travel document but also help him navigate the growing anti-trans sentiment in his community. “There is definitely a sense of everyone being emboldened in their anti-trans, anti-LGBTQ attitudes,” Flatland said, noting the hostile environment her son faces at school.

The Emotional and Legal Battle for Identity

For many transgender individuals, the passport policy is more than just a bureaucratic hurdle—it’s a deeply personal attack on their identity and dignity. Ash Lazarus Orr, a transgender advocate from West Virginia, had submitted an expedited application to change the gender marker on his passport from “F” to “M” just days before Trump took office. However, the application was not processed in time, and Orr now fears that his passport will not be updated, putting his international travel plans at risk.

Zaya Perysian, a 22-year-old content creator from Los Angeles, experienced similar frustration when her passport application was “corrected” to reflect her sex assigned at birth. Despite her efforts to expedite the process, her new passport arrived with a letter informing her that the gender marker had been changed to “male.” Perysian, who is among the plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging the policy, described the incident as part of a broader effort to erase transgender identities. “They don’t want any trans person to feel validated,” she said. “They want it to go back to how it used to be, where we were seen as like these creatures.”

Both Orr and Perysian are fighting back through the legal system, joining others in the hopes of halting the discriminatory policy and restoring their rights to accurately represent their genders on official documents. Their stories are a testament to the resilience and determination of the transgender community in the face of systemic discrimination.

Beyond Passports: The Larger Struggle for Recognition

The Trump administration’s passport policy is just one piece of a larger puzzle of anti-transgender actions that have left many families and individuals in limbo. For Elise Flatland’s son, the delay in processing his passport has meant months of uncertainty and vulnerability. For Mellow, it has meant making a painful choice between honesty and compliance. For Ash Lazarus Orr and Zaya Perysian, it has meant fighting for the right to have their identities acknowledged by the government.

The lawsuit challenging the passport policy represents a crucial front in the battle for transgender rights. If successful, it could pave the way for the restoration of gender-affirming policies and the recognition of transgender individuals’ rights to equal treatment under the law. For now, families like the Flatlands and individuals like Mellow, Orr, and Perysian remain in a state of uncertainty, hoping for a future where their identities are respected and their rights are protected.

The fight over passports is not just about travel documents—it’s about dignity, recognition, and the fundamental human right to live authentically. As the legal battle unfolds, the transgender community continues to advocate for a world where their identities are validated and their rights are upheld.