Hunter Schafer: Trans Euphoria star says new passport lists her as male

Hunter Schafer, a transgender woman and star of hit HBO teen drama Euphoria, has said a new US passport lists her as male, despite selecting female when she filled out the paperwork.

“I was shocked,” Schafer said in a TikTok video showing the “M” marker on her new travel document. Her previous passport listed her as female.

“I just didn’t think it was actually going to happen,” the 26-year-old added, criticising US President Donald Trump’s policies on gender.

On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order recognising only two sexes and declaring they cannot be changed. The US now issues passports with just male or female designations, based on a person’s sex recorded at birth.

Previously, Americans could select their gender for passports and also request to be listed as “X”, which the Biden administration said in 2022 was being offered as an option “for non-binary, intersex and gender non-confirming individuals”.

Schafer said she had applied for a new passport after losing her old one while filming overseas.

She filled out forms indicating she was female, but when she picked up her replacement, it listed her as male, according to her post.

Schafer said she intended to travel abroad next week and anticipated challenges at the airport because of the new passport.

She said she believed it was “a direct result of the administration our country is currently operating under”.

Trump’s executive order says of the male and female sexes that they “are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality”.

It adds: “‘Sex’ is not a synonym for and does not include the concept of ‘gender identity’.”

The US state department, which issues passports, says on its website that it will “only issue passports with an M or F sex marker that match the customer’s biological sex at birth”.

After learning about Trump’s executive order, Schafer said her first reaction was: “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“Today I saw it,” she told fans.

Schafer added: “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.”

The Euphoria star said she changed her gender markers for her driver’s licence and passports when she was a teenager, but that her birth certificate was never amended.

“I’m pretty sure it’s going to come along with having to out myself to border patrol agents and that whole gig, much more often than I would like to or is really necessary,” she said.

On the HBO drama, now in its third season, she plays a transgender teenager, Jules Vaughn, who has a complicated relationship with the main character Rue.