Oppose discriminatory passport rules for trans and intersex Americans

I’m writing today to express extreme concern about the now-active passport rules for trans, intersex, and non-binary people. These rules open the floodgates for the federal government to peer into private individuals’ lifelong trail of documents and perhaps even medical records in search of a “preponderance of evidence” about their genitalia. While the purported objective is “clarity,” the rule will, in fact, force many trans women who look like women and have an array of legal documents supporting their identity as women, and similarly trans men who look like men and have an array of legal documents supporting their identity as men, to travel under passports that indicate otherwise. It will invite public abuse of this already oppressed 1% of Americans. The right of equal protection under the law is lost when legal documents legally obtained are no longer respected for a select minority. As I imagine you know, history provides deeply disturbing case studies of what follows after a politicized government begins tinkering with the freedom of movement of oppressed minorities in this way. I ask that you do all that you can to block this policy and to create workarounds for trans, intersex, and nonbinary people to continue to be able to move freely as this administration tightens the noose around their necks. History will not look favorably on those who turn away from these early but clear signs of severe oppression.