Michelle Rosenblum of Ventura is planning a family vacation to Hawaii. She is excited — but worried.
Rosenblum is transgender. After President Trump’s election in November to a second term, she said, she rushed to get her identity documents in order as a matter of safety.
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Rosenblum updated her California birth certificate to show she had transitioned. And she renewed her passport. She applied as a female but was stunned to receive a letter from the U.S. Department of State saying her application had to be changed “to correct your information to show your biological sex at birth.”
As she prepares to fly, Rosenblum fears the discrepancy between her California Real ID — which says female — and her passport will create problems with the Transportation Security Administration.
In an email to The Times, Lorie Dankers, a TSA spokesperson, said the agency “accepts documents for identity verification with an ‘X’ marker. There is no change to this policy.”
In California, residents have had the option to choose “X” for nonbinary since 2019. But not all states allow this. And for transgender people who have transitioned from one gender to the other and do not fall under the “X” category, discrepancies can remain.
Rosenblum is debating bringing a stack of documents to the airport that she would rather keep safe at home, such as her birth certificate, Social Security card, and a court order showing her change in gender.
“In the 10 years that I’ve been transitioned, I have never felt like, ‘Whoa, I need to get all my papers together,’” said Rosenblum, who works in marketing. “I was never concerned about traveling.”
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