Why Is It Taking This Latina Nearly 5 Years To Get A Passport?

MeChelle Salinas is a hardworking Austin based hairstylist and makeup artist who I met when I attended my first Southern Comfort Conference in the ATL back in 1999.   She's a native Texan born in the Rio Grande border town of Eagle Pass who loves to travel, and would love to have the ability do so internationally.

For that as everyone is aware of, you need a passport.   But MeChelle has been stuck in a bureaucratic nightmare that has dragged on for now almost five years just to get it.

Acquiring the identity documents we need as trans people can sometimes be a pain in the behind as my nine month battle just to get my Texas drivers license was testimony to.  There are also times that we trans people as forced to jump through hoops and encounter additional procedural hurdles before we even can get those necessary identity documents.

Being born in Texas makes Salinas an American citizen by birth.  Both of her parents are also American citizens. But she was also born in her parent's Eagle Pass home with the assistance of a midwife instead of in a hospital.

That's her first problem.  Problem number two is Eagle Pass is on the US-Mexican border. And oh, did I also mention that on her way to adulthood she came out to her family as trans in her teens?.

"I just wish people would open their minds and hearts and accept that we are all human, no matter what gender you chose to be,." says Salinas as we discussed her situation.

Fast forward to a now in adulthood Salinas starting the process to get her new passport.   She has a copy of her certified Texas birth certificate.   She has copies of her doctor's and medical records going back to infancy.  She has copies of all the paperwork for her legal name and gender marker change that occurred in 1998.  She has even enlisted the help of her local congressman Lloyd Doggett to try to break the bureaucratic logjam to acquire her passport.

She has even held a US passport in the past.  "I had a passport before. But they are claiming that any passport info over 20 years old was deleted from the system."

But because the paperwork and documents she has in her possession have been deemed  as 'insufficient proof' of American citizenship, the passport reapplication process she started in 2010 has now been stuck in the bureaucratic maze for nearly five years.

Salinas shared with me the reason she was reapplying for her US passport was also work related.  "I was hired by one of my regular clients to do a wedding in Italy.   I had been doing her hair since she was 8 years old and I was not only looking forward to that trip to see her get married, but get a chance to get paid doing what I love at the same time." she added.

"Because of the passport problems, I not only missed out on that trip and the money I was going to get paid, but I also missed getting to see one of my longtime clients get married.".

Salinas is frustrated that she not only missed out on that paid wedding opportunity, she's upset that she's still enmeshed in this bureaucratic nightmare when all she wants to do is get her passport, have it in case opportunities like that missed Italian wedding pop up in the near future and start traveling the world.   She is searching for an attorney to help her out.

Salinas also suspects that because of her intersectional status of being a trans Latina who happened to be born on the US-Mexico border, in a time in which anti-Latino immigration animus is being stirred up in the United States for political gain combined with transphobia, are factors in why her passport reapplication application process is moving at a glacially slow pace.

"It has taken me three years just to get a caseworker," said Salinas. "It's been so hard and frustrating that I have almost given up. But I know I have to fight to make it happen.  I'm just tired and frustrated about the whole experience right now.." . 

"I was denied by mail. All my info and paper work was sent back and I was told to try again in 60 to 90 days " she added. "They also kept every cent of the fees I had paid to them as I .was left with once again to starting the process again from scratch"

"When I asked the caseworker what would change in 60 to 90 days to be able to get my passport she answered, 'I don't know' '".

Despite the emotionally draining at times bureaucratic drama, Salinas is hopeful that she will eventually get her passport and will soon be jetting off to the places that she has dreamed about visiting since she was a child.

And I hope that happens for MeChelle as well.

Where In The World Can I Go With My US Passport As A Trans Person?

One of the things that's on my short term to do list is getting my United States passport.  I want to have that issue out of the way in case I get invited to participate in a future international trans conference.  

The cool thing about getting a US passport is you don't need to undergo genital surgery to get the proper gender code on it and it's on the voter suppression laws list of acceptable ID because of the $135 cost.

I do like to travel, and one of the things I regret didn't get a chance to do more often before I reluctantly left the airline industry was fly internationally.

Like a lot of people I have an international travel bucket list of which in addition to seeing the classic tourist attractions like Paris' Eiffel Towel, Beijing's Forbidden City, Tokyo's Ginza district, transiting the Panama Canal and Berlin's Brandenburg Gate I also have attending international sporting events on my agenda like the Olympics, FIFA World Cups, FIBA world championships and tennis Grand Slam tournaments.  

My personal travel bucket list has a mix of well known tourist things to do plus things that are significant to my culture as a child of the African Diaspora and membership in the international trans community.    

Some of the things I'd like to do someday in addition to visiting Paris is going to the D-Day beaches in Normandy.   I want to see Robben Island prison in South Africa, look out of The Door of No Return at Senegal's Goree Island, visit Berlin, Stuttgart where my cousins are and drive on an autobahn, and travel to Holland and visit Anne Frank's annex. 

I want to go to Poland and see Auschwitz, see Mt. Fuji in Japan and ride a bullet train, visit Australia, hang out with Zoe in Canberra, see the Sydney Opera House and catch a footy game.  I want to visit London's Imperial War Museum and The All England Club, see Hong Kong, and spend some quality time with Naomi Fontanos and my transpinay sisters in the Philippines and take in the Amazing Philippines Show while I'm there.  

I'd also like to travel to Thailand, see a show at one of Thailand's trans cabarets, spend quality time with Audrey Mbugua and Lindsay during a Kenyan visit.  I'd like to visit Canada and my Canadian homegirls cis and trans across the country along with doing a dream north of the border road trip. 

But because of the anti-trans animus being stoked in large sections of the Middle East, eastern Europe, Latin America, Malaysia and Indonesia and much of the African continent, there are some of my travel bucket list items I may have to postpone or scratch off the list period for the time being. 

Can't go to Russia or Nigeria.  They both have draconian anti-LGBT laws and Russia will host the 2014 Winter Olympics in a few months.  Bye bye Red Square in Moscow and visiting St. Petersburg. 

Uganda, where Victoria Falls is located not only has a Kill The Gays one they have been trying to pass for several years now, it has rampant transphobia.  There are several sub-Saharan African nations in which transphobia is sadly on the rise.

The Middle East?  Same tired story of rampant anti-trans animus, especially in the Gulf States like Kuwait.  Egypt, the home of the pyramids has denied entry to transpeople into their country from customs and so has Dubai. 

Turkey is the second most dangerous place in the world for trans women and will be the host nation for the FIBA World Championship for Women next year.  

Brazil?  One of the most dangerous places in the world for trans women and the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics will be there.   Mexico?  Increasingly dangerous for trans women.    Greece?  Police harassment and unjust detainment of our transsisters, so that kills visiting the ancient Greek antiquity sites like the Parthenon.  The Caribbean?   We have heard the stories about Jamaica's recent anti-TBLG history.  Some of the other Anglophone Caribbean nations still have British colonial era anti-crossdressing laws on their legal books that could be liberally interpreted by the local po-po's to garner you some unwanted time in the local jails.

Bermuda?  While they just enacted a law expanding rights for gay, lesbian and bi folks, it's still open harassment season for trans people.

Central America?  Anti-trans animus and violent attacks on our transsisters in several of those nations such as Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.  Malaysia and Indonesia?  Anti-trans attitudes spread by fundie Muslims.  Hong Kong was detaining trans women, especially transpinays as you entered customs.

And that's before we even throw in my skin color and racial profiling as a factor.   The fun of just getting on that international flight to leave the USA after going through the TSA security gauntlet and upon your return going through customs as you reenter the US.

So where the hell can I travel as a Black trans woman who wants to see the world before she departs it? 

Theoretically, it's any place on the globe I have the time, cash and desire to visit with the exception of Cuba and North Korea in which US government travel bans are in place.

But realistically, the list of countries I can safely travel to as a trans person is sadly shrinking.