As an alternate view… I specifically opted NOT to get the Real ID because it is federally regulated and I think they will attempt to do the same thing as they did with passports. However, state IDs are governed by state laws. I’m under no delusion that I’ll be able to stay in Arizona for very long, but if I am, my license with correct name and sex marker doesn’t expire until *2052*. If I left AZ it would obviously be to a blue state which could probably push back on laws banning sex marker changes to IDs that are not Real IDs. I do have an updated passport if I need to fly, which doesn’t happen often.
There’s really no good plan. We’re entering territory which sadly is precedented for other minority groups but that most American under 50 are not used to. We don’t know what to do. We don’t know how far they’ll go. But I agree very much that I wish the cis people in my life would freak out about this because it’s not something to be having normal reactions to. I’d rather assume the worst and hopefully be wrong than the other way around.
Count me among the trans women who fear being relocated to a camp. I can't believe I wrote that last sentence, but it's true. Reason is not required for our future, apparently. Insanity now!
Sadly true. We here in Washington state just commemorated our shameful history being a major part of the Japanese Internment. That was only 80 years ago. There are still people alive today who were interned, a single life time ago. Don't doubt it can't happen again but for Trans and Queer people.
If RFK gets his way, it'll also be all the neurodivergent and anyone that takes mental health medications. So I'll be there too, i guess, in good company
I live in MA and have a real ID with gender marker X and my passport is in my birth name and F. My question is traveling to other states that are not trans welcoming- I am afraid something could happen. This is so enraging.
This is my situation, too, Mal - but I don't have a current passport. Just other IDs that have F while my license says X. It's completely unknown what will happen, but I'm afraid to travel.
Mal Pronouns, I live in PA and have an x gender marker on my real ID. I don't know if I should try to switch it back to f or leave it. I don't have a passport, but want to get one ASAP. I just don't know what to do
We are in NJ. We called DMV to make an appointment for Real ID. The robot informed us there are NO appointments available. For anything. Our governor has declared NJ a sanctuary state for transgender humans. Abortions and abortion rights. He is defying ICE and daring them to raid the governor’s mansion. Gov Murphy has an asylum seeker in his home. He double dog dared them. 🤣🏴☠️
We are non binary. We have been misgendered all our lives. We chuckle now as opposed to freezing with confusion on our face. We only hacked ourselves last year. Our Mom was German and lived through all this. She came to America to escape and find adventure. She died in 2015. We are thankful she isn’t witnessing Naziism rise again.
I have two trans adult kids, trying to help them get everything updated. They were born in az, so Im trying to update their birth certificates to the right gender because the law just changed and now we can. I am so sorry you're going through all this.
Veronica, I have the same fears, plus being cut off of Social Security and Medicare. I’m retired 72. I am living the life of ANNE FRANK🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️❤️⛅️👧🎶
I'm so scared of the camp scenario, too, Veronica. And scrambling with a very new legal name change (last week) to change as many documents as I can... But terrified by the fact that not all of my IDs will have the same gender marker (x). And will I be unable to prove my citizenship at some point, like you wrote? I really appreciate you putting all this into words so succinctly.
I'm worried about the camps too. I'm not trans but I'm queer and I also have a few other things that this administration wants to "eradicate" me for... the threat is real. It's not out of the realm of possibility. Helping each other be prepared is how we survive. Thanks for this post.
I'm white FTM. I have thought many times at the start of this how much more terrifying it would be to have multipliers such as immigrated + trans or race + trans. Either way, I feel in the end they already have the list and it was made from the paper trail of documentation to simply legally transition.
In many ways, I sometimes wish were populous enough to have an impact in the same way immigrants do. Don't want us? Pick your own food, slaughter your own animals for meat, scrub you own messes- we are not showing up to work and it's because your disappearing us and deporting us to El Salvador/Guantanamo.
Or black Americans, they are not coming out to protest because the moment for "unity" was in November 2024- and white men/women didn't show up for them. Nothing about racism is new to them in this country. Their view is white people fucked it up then white people don't get to benefit from black labor and dollars.
That lead to the truth we have all always known about being trans, we impact everyone else's life so minimally they never noticed we were here and when we are not. They won't notice when we are gone because we were never the issue.
My daughter just realized that she's trans about a year ago. She's autistic as well so it took time for her to process her realization and so I started buying her like women's shampoo and razors, a few items of clothes I figured could by layered into any style. It took time for her to feel comfortable and to come out to everyone except her school so far. We got her name changed in Dec, ppwk came in Jan and we've got all the things scheduled, but we missed the passport possibility. The timing is terrible but we're working on it and thank you so much for writing this and helping the community, helping to protect kids 💜
Somehow I missed your comment initially and am just seeing it now. There are a slew of people who have your kiddo's back. I am assuming your kiddo already has a passport, so you would need to change it. I ask because if she does not have a passport yet and this would be her first, I think it's worth a shot. I don't think they would know her as anything other than a girl if this is her first time applying.
Very useful article thanks for posting. I did go to Google and search for real ID my state name. My state uses your driver's license and just makes it a real ID based on how they process it. Each driver's license that has real ID qualified has a gold star on the upper right hand corner. I checked and I have that so I have real idea without knowing it. It expires in 2027 so I got some time to figure out what's next. Unless the state gets aggressive and start searching their archives for gender changes in the last x number of years then they'd have a hit list.
Texas started the process to gather names of people that changed their gender marker more than 2 years ago. The attorney general IIRC requested from the DMV, with the governors full backing. 🤬
Thank you for this. I have these same fears about being sent to a camp.
As an alternate view… I specifically opted NOT to get the Real ID because it is federally regulated and I think they will attempt to do the same thing as they did with passports. However, state IDs are governed by state laws. I’m under no delusion that I’ll be able to stay in Arizona for very long, but if I am, my license with correct name and sex marker doesn’t expire until *2052*. If I left AZ it would obviously be to a blue state which could probably push back on laws banning sex marker changes to IDs that are not Real IDs. I do have an updated passport if I need to fly, which doesn’t happen often.
There’s really no good plan. We’re entering territory which sadly is precedented for other minority groups but that most American under 50 are not used to. We don’t know what to do. We don’t know how far they’ll go. But I agree very much that I wish the cis people in my life would freak out about this because it’s not something to be having normal reactions to. I’d rather assume the worst and hopefully be wrong than the other way around.
There’s no good plan is right. Everything we do or don’t do could have consequences.
Count me among the trans women who fear being relocated to a camp. I can't believe I wrote that last sentence, but it's true. Reason is not required for our future, apparently. Insanity now!
Sadly true. We here in Washington state just commemorated our shameful history being a major part of the Japanese Internment. That was only 80 years ago. There are still people alive today who were interned, a single life time ago. Don't doubt it can't happen again but for Trans and Queer people.
If RFK gets his way, it'll also be all the neurodivergent and anyone that takes mental health medications. So I'll be there too, i guess, in good company
I will not go quietly into the night.
I live in MA and have a real ID with gender marker X and my passport is in my birth name and F. My question is traveling to other states that are not trans welcoming- I am afraid something could happen. This is so enraging.
This is my situation, too, Mal - but I don't have a current passport. Just other IDs that have F while my license says X. It's completely unknown what will happen, but I'm afraid to travel.
I hear you. This is just so unimaginable
Mal Pronouns, I live in PA and have an x gender marker on my real ID. I don't know if I should try to switch it back to f or leave it. I don't have a passport, but want to get one ASAP. I just don't know what to do
We are in NJ. We called DMV to make an appointment for Real ID. The robot informed us there are NO appointments available. For anything. Our governor has declared NJ a sanctuary state for transgender humans. Abortions and abortion rights. He is defying ICE and daring them to raid the governor’s mansion. Gov Murphy has an asylum seeker in his home. He double dog dared them. 🤣🏴☠️
We are non binary. We have been misgendered all our lives. We chuckle now as opposed to freezing with confusion on our face. We only hacked ourselves last year. Our Mom was German and lived through all this. She came to America to escape and find adventure. She died in 2015. We are thankful she isn’t witnessing Naziism rise again.
In Illinois new appointments open daily at 6:30 AM. Good luck!
I have two trans adult kids, trying to help them get everything updated. They were born in az, so Im trying to update their birth certificates to the right gender because the law just changed and now we can. I am so sorry you're going through all this.
Veronica, I have the same fears, plus being cut off of Social Security and Medicare. I’m retired 72. I am living the life of ANNE FRANK🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️❤️⛅️👧🎶
The question is stealth or not. I'm mostly stealth and I will probably remain stealth as much as possible. All my paperwork were updated years ago.
This is just awful that this even needs to be a consideration, because of a political party that has fully rejected science.
FYI for anyone who still needs to get a Real ID (me) and you've already got TSA precheck. The documents needed for Real ID are the same.
I'm so scared of the camp scenario, too, Veronica. And scrambling with a very new legal name change (last week) to change as many documents as I can... But terrified by the fact that not all of my IDs will have the same gender marker (x). And will I be unable to prove my citizenship at some point, like you wrote? I really appreciate you putting all this into words so succinctly.
I'm worried about the camps too. I'm not trans but I'm queer and I also have a few other things that this administration wants to "eradicate" me for... the threat is real. It's not out of the realm of possibility. Helping each other be prepared is how we survive. Thanks for this post.
I'm white FTM. I have thought many times at the start of this how much more terrifying it would be to have multipliers such as immigrated + trans or race + trans. Either way, I feel in the end they already have the list and it was made from the paper trail of documentation to simply legally transition.
In many ways, I sometimes wish were populous enough to have an impact in the same way immigrants do. Don't want us? Pick your own food, slaughter your own animals for meat, scrub you own messes- we are not showing up to work and it's because your disappearing us and deporting us to El Salvador/Guantanamo.
Or black Americans, they are not coming out to protest because the moment for "unity" was in November 2024- and white men/women didn't show up for them. Nothing about racism is new to them in this country. Their view is white people fucked it up then white people don't get to benefit from black labor and dollars.
That lead to the truth we have all always known about being trans, we impact everyone else's life so minimally they never noticed we were here and when we are not. They won't notice when we are gone because we were never the issue.
Such a difficult time for our community... good thoughts and advice here.
My daughter just realized that she's trans about a year ago. She's autistic as well so it took time for her to process her realization and so I started buying her like women's shampoo and razors, a few items of clothes I figured could by layered into any style. It took time for her to feel comfortable and to come out to everyone except her school so far. We got her name changed in Dec, ppwk came in Jan and we've got all the things scheduled, but we missed the passport possibility. The timing is terrible but we're working on it and thank you so much for writing this and helping the community, helping to protect kids 💜
Somehow I missed your comment initially and am just seeing it now. There are a slew of people who have your kiddo's back. I am assuming your kiddo already has a passport, so you would need to change it. I ask because if she does not have a passport yet and this would be her first, I think it's worth a shot. I don't think they would know her as anything other than a girl if this is her first time applying.
Yes, she's had one since she was 6. We're considering trying, but I'm worried that might flag her somehow
I have a RealID driver's license that expires in 2028. Should I get an ID card too?
I won’t be prescriptive for other trans folks people. But it’s worth looking into ID rules in your state.
Very useful article thanks for posting. I did go to Google and search for real ID my state name. My state uses your driver's license and just makes it a real ID based on how they process it. Each driver's license that has real ID qualified has a gold star on the upper right hand corner. I checked and I have that so I have real idea without knowing it. It expires in 2027 so I got some time to figure out what's next. Unless the state gets aggressive and start searching their archives for gender changes in the last x number of years then they'd have a hit list.
This is exactly it for me. I am getting a state id (in addition to my driver’s license) as it will go out further
Texas started the process to gather names of people that changed their gender marker more than 2 years ago. The attorney general IIRC requested from the DMV, with the governors full backing. 🤬