Caitlyn Jenner says she appealed directly to President Donald Trump after she was unable to change her passport’s gender marker.
The Olympic athlete turned Fox News contributor revealed the incident on a recent episode of the Tomi Lahren Is Fearless podcast.
During a conversation with host Tomi Lahren on April 7, Jenner, who is transgender, said she had been affected by one of the president’s executive orders targeting trans Americans’ access to identity documents that reflect their gender identity.
“Today, documentation is extremely important. Every time you turn around, you gotta show ID, ID, ID,” Jenner, 76, said. “So somebody in my position, who has transitioned, I worked very, very hard. I worked with a law firm to make sure everything was changed from ‘M’ to ‘F,’ right down to my birth certificate.”
She said all her documents had previously been updated, including her passport and Global Entry, allowing her to travel without issue. However, after her passport expired, a replacement issued by the State Department listed her sex as “male.”
Jenner said she attempted to correct the marker by submitting her amended birth certificate, but the change was not made.
“What do I do?” she said. “This is a safety factor.”
Trump’s executive order, signed on his first day back in office, states that the United States will recognize only two “immutable” sexes, male and female, and that government-issued identification should reflect a person’s sex “at conception.”
Following the directive, the State Department suspended processing passport applications seeking gender marker changes.
In November, the Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration after lower court rulings had backed transgender and nonbinary Americans challenging the policy.
Jenner said she later wrote to Trump during a visit to Mar-a-Lago, outlining how the policy had affected her and others. She has not received a response, noting that the issue may not be a priority for the president, though she expressed continued support for him.
Other high-profile transgender figures, including Euphoria star Hunter Schafer, have also reported having passports reverted to reflect their sex at birth rather than their gender identity.
As of 2021, an estimated 476,000 transgender adults in the US lacked identity documents with their correct gender marker, according to the Williams Institute.