Schlacter et. al. v. U.S. Department of State et. al.

Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit on behalf of seven transgender U.S. citizens, including one who is nonbinary, challenging the Trump administration’s policy denying them U.S. passports with accurate sex designations. The discriminatory passport policy exposes transgender U.S. citizens to harassment, abuse, and discrimination, in some cases endangering them abroad or preventing them from traveling, by forcing them to carry identification documents that share private and inaccurate information against their wishes. 

The named plaintiffs include: Zander Schlacter, a transgender man who is a textile artist and designer based in New York; and two transgender women, Jill Tran of Maryland, and Lia Hepler-Mackey of California, both recent college graduates. The pseudonymous plaintiffs include one nonbinary person, Kris Koe, a full-time university student and part-time tutor and grocery clerk living in Connecticut, and three transgender men, Peter Poe, a Maryland-based college student, David Doe, a Pennsylvania lawyer, and Robert Roe, a U.S. Foreign Service Officer living in Europe. 

Each plaintiff experienced a similar outcome when they applied to renew a passport which already had a correct sex designation, to update the sex designation on their existing passport, or to update their legal name only. In each case, and despite supplying the required documents, they all received passports that the State Department decided reflected their “biological sex.”