Reading Time: 3 minutes
Hunter Schafer is not really an activist. She’s said as much herself (despite speaking out during her teen years).
Whether people know her from Euphoria or The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes or from fancasts to play Princess Zelda, she’s an actress.
Unfortunately, in our bleak and perilous political climate, there are times when everyone has to speak up.
In her case, she’s showing the change forced upon her documentation by Donald Trump’s State department.
There’s a huge problem with Hunter Schafer’s new passport
Hunter Schafer has released a lengthy TikTok video which is making the rounds on other social media sites.
There, the actress details how she lost her passport last year. Specifically, a burglar broke into a car and stole it when she was in Barcelona.
She had no choice but to apply for a new one. Now, she has received it — but there’s a huge error. And the intentions behind it are malicious.
Though Hunter Schafer had taken all of the correct steps in filing for a replacement passport, it came back with an “M” gender marker.
“I filled everything out just like I normally would,” she detailed during the video.
“I put female,” Schafer continued, “and when it was picked up today, and I opened it up, they had changed the marker to male.”
Why does Hunter Schafer’s passport have the wrong gender marker?
After retaking power, Donald Trump signed an executive order instructing federal agencies to only recognize male and female and no other genders or gender indicators. Additionally, it required that these agencies only recognize the gender markers assigned at birth.
Additionally, this pernicious order required the Bureau of Consular Affairs to freeze passport applications for, essentially, all trans people.
Hunter Schafer was as grimly aware of this as the rest of us. However, seeing it for herself, on her own documentation, was another matter entirely.
Cuckoo star Hunter Schafer has reportedly been given a new passport with an M for the gender marker, outing her as trans to anyone she shows it to. The model and actress says her previous passport was stolen in Barcelona, leading her to apply for a replacement.
— Ari Drennen (@aridrennen.bsky.social) February 21, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Hunter Schafer’s documents have all had the “F” gender marker since she first got her driver’s license.
During the video, she wonders if her birth certificate’s “M” is the reason for the change, as she had never amended her birth certificate because she had never needed to.
She emphasized that she did not make the video to “fear monger, or create drama, or receive consolation.”
This isn’t just about her
Instead, she explained, her goal was to point out the plight that transgender Americans now face.
Schafer also highlighted that most trans folks are not a “celebrity trans woman who is white and thin and can adhere to contemporary beauty standards.” This is bad for her, but so much worse for so many others.
As many have pointed out, this anti-trans bigotry is not merely designed to denigrate and discourage transgender Americans. For many, it will function as a trans travel ban — because their own documentation will automatically “out” them.
