Social Security is Ceasing Changes to Gender Markers

As of an emergency order issued by the new administration at the end of January, the United States Social Security Administration (SSA) is no longer allowing changes to the recorded gender of individuals in the system.

The Social Security Administration changes are clearly a direct result of a slew of transphobic orders being passed by the new Trump administration and the harmful, dangerous rhetoric that accompanies them. The documents read, “In accordance with the recent Presidential Actions under Executive Order, Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to The Federal Government, sex field data changes on the NUMIDENT (e.g., M to F or F to M) must not be accepted or processed.”

This is detrimental to the trans community and beyond, as Social Security cards are mainly used for authorizing U.S. citizens to work by validating one’s identity. It also allows them to pay into Social Security, which is used to sustain living in the event of disability or old age. Therefore, one can imagine the havoc that disallowing trans people to alter their Social Security gender markers will wreak on those pre/mid-transition, as well as those who have not legally transitioned (on their federal paperwork)—If your identity doesn’t match your Social Security card, it could prevent people from getting jobs and being able to pay into Social Security, which they may need later down the line.

Journalist Chris Geidner posted photos of the email the SSA sent out on February 1 and was publicly available on the SSA site as of February 5. The documents state that as of January 31, workers at the SSA are no longer permitted to change the gender marker upon request in the Numerical Identification System (NUMIDENT), and are to inform those seeking a gender marker change that they’re out of luck using the language “we are not able to accept or process a sex field change at this time.”

This isn’t the first time that the trans community has faced challenges with the SSA — in 2002, they required proof of gender-affirming surgical procedures in order to alter a gender marker. However, in 2013 and in 2022 under the Obama and Biden administrations respectively, those invasive restrictions were relaxed. As a result of this crackdown on trans people, Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ+ legal group, is advising against trans people attempting to change their gender identifiers on legal documents at this time.