Claven Snow was born female in Iowa during the late 1970s but realized his male identity at a young age. He also learned to keep that to himself.
“I mean, when I was in second grade, I said I wanted to be a man when I grew up,” Snow said. “My parents spent money on pink and white dresses and therapy to remedy that. I just, I didn’t ever start feeling like a female, but I did learn to be quiet about it and not say that.”
Now 46, Snow coparents two children. He’s also a husband, an advocate and a North Lawrence resident. And he’s no longer quiet.
When Snow participates in a demonstration or protest, he wears a large cross pendant, a beret, and red and black — the colors of anarcho-syndicalists. Snow strongly believes in syndicalism as “a societal system of life and work without cost or wages.”
Snow reflected Sunday on his physical transition from female to male. He said it began with hormone therapy at 23 while attending college. Later he underwent a double mastectomy and a hysterectomy. Then came the paperwork, including a name change.
Snow’s Iowa birth certificate has reflected his name and gender identity for more than a decade, as does his current Kansas driver’s license.
Snow went to the post office in mid-December and applied for a new passport to replace a 20-year-old expired passport. Where the application asks an applicant to indicate “sex,” Snow checked the box marked “male,” and the wait began. Snow hoped his application would make it through the system before President Joe Biden’s term expired.
Then came the inauguration of President Donald Trump on Jan. 20. Trump signed a slew of executive orders that day, including one called “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”
The order nixed Americans’ previous ability to self-affirm their gender on passports. It also removed the nonbinary X gender marker option, which had been available since 2022. The State Department’s website now reads, “We will only issue passports with an M or F sex marker that match the customer’s biological sex at birth.”
The T, Q and plus sign also were dropped from LGBTQ+ references on federal websites. Executive orders banning gender-affirming care for trans youth and barring trans athletes from women’s sports followed. So did lawsuits, including a federal court case filed in Massachusetts by the American Civil Liberties Union that challenges the new passport policies.
Snow received his passport last week. Disappointed but not surprised, he realized it was again marked with an F for female.
“None of my documentation has female anywhere on it,” Snow said. “And while we’re not defined by our surgeries, if you struck me down, you wouldn’t see anything female. But 46 years ago, I popped out that way, and they know it.”
Civil rights advocates argue forced outings such as the one Snow might experience with his passport could endanger a trans person.
Kevin Elliott, Snow’s husband, said it was an attempt by the Trump administration to erase the LGBTQ+ community.
“I mean, I feel like we’re living in the equivalent of 1930s Germany, and it’s become fairly (clear) who our Hitler is and who our Hess and Goebbels and Göring are,” Elliott said. “What I’m hoping, though, we find out is, who’s going to be our Oskar Schindler and our Pastor Niemöller.”
We submitted a list of questions about the new passport policies to the State Department’s Consular Affairs Press Office and asked about the safety issues that might arise if an American’s gender expression didn’t match their passport.
A spokesperson responded via email, “The U.S. Department of State has no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas. We strongly encourage all U.S. citizen travelers to be aware of the local laws and customs at their destination, as these can differ from those in the United States. Destination-specific information for every country in the world is available on our website, travel.state.gov.”
Impact of SB 180
When Snow’s Kansas driver’s license expires next year, it’s unclear whether its replacement will retain the male designation. Attorney General Kris Kobach sued the Kansas Department of Revenue for allowing transgender residents to be identified by gender on their driver’s license following the 2023 passage of Senate Bill 180.
The law defines “sex” as male or female based on an individual’s biological sex assigned at birth, leaving out individuals who identify as trans, nonbinary, gender fluid or gender-nonconforming. It also labels “an individual born with a medically verifiable diagnosis of ‘disorder/differences in sex development,’” such as an intersex person, as disabled.
Currently, an injunction prevents KDOR from issuing a driver’s license with a gender marker that differs from the sex assigned at birth. Attorney D.C. Hiegert, civil liberties legal fellow for the ACLU of Kansas, said a decision from a Kansas Court of Appeals panel is expected this month.
Hiegert said ACLU had received a number of recent inquiries related to identity documents. They said the U.S. government handles issues related to Social Security and passports, while driver’s licenses are handled by the state where you reside. Birth records are maintained in the state where you were born. Each state has its own set of policies, while federal policy covers the country.
Hiegert said a future decision in the passport policy case in Massachusetts would determine whether Snow could change his passport to match his gender identity. Hiegert said their office would continue to monitor the case.
Currently, an individual who was born in Kansas can’t change the gender marker on their birth certificate. If your gender marker has already been changed, any requests to change or obtain certified copies of your birth certificate will result in a new birth certificate being issued that reflects the sex you were assigned at birth.
Information on identity documents can be found at this link.
Hiegert recommended people with questions refer to the ACLU LGBTQ+ Advocacy Resource Hub for more information and to reach out if they have additional concerns.
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Tricia Masenthin (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at tmasenthin (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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