Trans people have a few extra headaches to think about while traveling. There's checking how to legally bring your hormones on a plane (http://trip.ustia.org/health/articles/1219/can-i-carry-medicine-needles-and-syringes-onboard-a-plane/), dealing with binary body scans (http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/5/26/groin-anomalies-andpatdownstravelingwhiletrans.html), and updating your name and gender on your passport or state ID.
For United States domestic travel, the only identification needed is a current driver's license or state ID. Every state has different requirements for changing local ID, but a United States passport will always trump state identification, and can be used for domestic travel if you live in a state that makes it difficult to update gender on the local ID.
The Department of State has fairly clear guidelines about changing the information on your passport. Unfortunately, the whole process takes time, money, and number of bureaucratic hoops. I'm FTM and it took about $140, four months, and two rejections (discounting the various medical costs of transition) to change my information.
Name changes are the simplest part, because a legal name change is a legal name change, and must be reflected on every government document pertaining to you, and cannot be contested. Your passport can only list your legal name, so if you haven't yet changed your name, or don't want to, you will not be able to change the one on your passport. If you have changed it, updating your passport is a matter of filling out a form, paying the fee, and showing a notarized court document showing the change. Detailed instructions live here: http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/passports/services/correction.html
If you want to change both your name and gender marker, I would suggest petitioning for both at the same time. It made more sense for me to pay one fee and request two changes, then pay for two new passports that changed at different times. It was, however, much easier to change my name, and I had my name legally updated before my gender on most documents due to that ease. If I had needed to travel with any regularity before I was able to change my gender, it might have been worth it to pay for two different passports at two different times.
The criteria for changing gender markers are as follows:
-The ID you present with your application must accurately reflect your current appearance.
-The passport photo you submit with your application must accurately reflect your current appearance.
-In order to have the passport issued in your new gender, you must submit a physician certificate with your application that validates whether your gender transition is in process or complete.
-Requirements for all elements of the passport application aside from gender still apply, including evidence of legal name change (if applicable).
The physician, letter is the most difficult part (and the reason my application was twice rejected). It must be a signed original statement from an attending medical physician on office letterhead and include the following:
-Physician’s full name
•Medical license or certificate number
•Issuing state or other jurisdiction of medical license/certificate
•Address and telephone number of the physician
•Language stating that he or she is your attending physician and that he or she has a doctor/patient relationship with you
•Language stating you have had appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition to the new gender (male or female)
•Language stating “I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States that the forgoing is true and correct”
Because the Department of State has such specific linguistic qualifications (I was rejected because my letter described my completed top surgery instead of saying I had 'appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition to the new gender') it might be worth giving your doctor the following form letter to use:
(Attending Physician’s Official Letterhead)
I, (physician’s full name), (physician’s medical license or certificate number), (issuing State of medical license/certificate), am the attending physician of (name of patient), with whom I have a doctor/patient relationship.
(Name of patient) has had appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition to the new gender (specify new gender male or female).
Or
(Name of patient) is in the process of gender transition to the new gender (specify new gender male or female).
I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States that the forgoing is true and correct.
Signature of Physician
Typed Name of Physician
Date
All this information is available at http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/passports/information/gender.html.
You might have noticed the option for two kinds of passport: a provisional 'in process' passport, or 'complete' standard one. To understand the difference, you have to realize that the US government recognizes gender as two boxes. You can be in the man box, the woman box, or traveling in between. While this is some trans people's experience, it doesn't best reflect the needs of genderqueer, non-binary, or gender non-conforming people.
With that thinking in mind, you can see that the Department of State is thinking of a trans person as someone with gender dysphoria, who then undergoes a name change and medical transition to help them pass as their preferred gender. A provisional passport is valid for two years and meant to function in that 'in between time' where you're moving from one box to the other and might not pass yet. Again, this doesn't reflect everyone's experience, but it's how the current legal system works.
If a provisional passport isn't right for you, you can submit all changes for a normal full validity ten-year passport.
Something else to keep in mind is that all these documents can be mailed. I made the mistake of trying to do it all in person, thinking that if my application was approved at the state office, all the changes would be accepted. Instead, I had to pay the expedited delivery fee (as the office did expedited passports only) and, despite three different people looking over and approving my documents in-office, it was still rejected when mailed to the state.
Finally, current policy dictated that passport specialists must treat you with respect, meaning they must respect your choice in pronouns and cannot ask invasive unrelated questions. If this does not happen, file a complaint with your Regional Passport Office or local Senator's Office.
Good luck!
Calvin Gimpelevich is a trans Cascadian writer. He has work in Glitterwolf, THEM, and The Collection: Short Fiction from the Transgender Vanguard. His webcomic, Wolfmen, was awarded the 2014 Prism Comics Queer Press Grant.
http://www.calvingimpelevich.com/
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