Days Before Trump Takes Power, the Biden Administration Added a New Hurdle for Trans People Updating Their Legal Documents
I have always been terrible at jumping through bureaucratic hoops, but the incoming Trump administration was enough to make me finally take action. Like many trans people, I felt an urgency to update the name and sex on my Social Security card. The stakes felt high, and the timeline felt even tighter with Trump’s promise to enshrine into law that there are only two genders, assigned at birth.
My first attempt to navigate the Social Security Administration (SSA) process was through their phone system. After calling multiple times and enduring hold times of over an hour and a half, I found myself frustrated by the lack of options. There was no way to speak to a human without waiting indefinitely, no callback system, and hold music that made me want to claw my eyes out. It was a bureaucratic nightmare, and I still hadn’t even made an appointment.
Thankfully, my friends who had recently updated their Social Security cards reassured me that you could simply walk into the local office to get it done. So, on Friday, I headed down to the Social Security office, paperwork in hand, hopeful that this would finally be the end of the ordeal.
When I arrived, I was met with an unexpected roadblock. The security officers at the door informed me that the SSA no longer processes any changes without an appointment. They said I could take a number, but it would be a four-hour wait just to speak with someone—and even then, all they could do was schedule me for a future appointment.
I took a number anyway, using part of my wait time to research this policy change. Sure enough, the Biden administration’s announcement, made one week after Trump won the 2024 presidential election, revealed that the SSA was "expanding appointment-based services," a phrase that turned out to basically mean the opposite of what it suggested. Effective January 6, 2025, appointments would be required for all field office services, including changes to Social Security cards.
With less than one week left before Donald Trump takes power, armed with a legislative agenda that explicitly targets trans people, this new policy is creating unhelpful barriers for those scrambling to update their legal documents. Even though the actual process to update a name or sex marker on a Social Security card can be done by a single employee in about a minute, there’s no online option to schedule appointments, and appointments made over the phone or in person could be weeks into the future. President Biden has often said that he has trans people’s backs. Changes like this suggest otherwise.
After waiting for three hours and forty minutes, my number was finally called. At first, the SSA employee told me they couldn’t process my request without an appointment. But I politely and firmly cited language from the administration’s announcement that specifically stated: “We want to make clear that we will not turn people away for service who are unable to make an appointment or do not want to make an appointment. For example, members of vulnerable populations, military personnel, people with terminal illnesses, and individuals with other situations requiring immediate or specialized attention may still walk in for service at our field offices.”
By standing my ground, I was ultimately able to update my Social Security card. But this experience shouldn’t have been this difficult. It shouldn’t require navigating byzantine policies or advocating for oneself in a system that feels designed to wear you down.
To my fellow trans people: if you’ve been putting off updating your documents, now is the time. Go today, tomorrow, or Friday. Print out the announcement so that you can cite the language. If you have not updated your passport with your new name or gender marker, do the paperwork and drop the application in the mail before this weekend. The process can be frustrating and exhausting, but getting it done before these barriers grow higher is crucial. Trump could easily introduce even more roadblocks to updating this paperwork, making the process even harder in the future. The process can be frustrating and exhausting, but getting it done before these barriers grow higher is crucial. Resources are out there to help, and with persistence, you can make it through. There’s still time, but don’t wait—protect yourself now.
I changed my name a week ago, and encountered the same bureaucratic hurdle at my local SSA office. Fortunately, my appointment was timely, and my Social Security account has now been updated.
On the same day, I submitted my passport for name change; I chose to pay for expedited service, as I wanted to avoid any hurdles the incoming administration might choose to create. As of yesterday, the State Department has acknowledged receipt of my passport, but states that I chose ‘routine’ processing. I don’t know if this is deliberate or an inadvertent error on State’s part; it certainly doesn’t reassure me.
Ah. That explains a lot. After 4 hours of not getting through Monday, I physically went to the local SSA office yesterday, saw the new sign that appointments are required, went in anyway, and was able to leave my name & number with the very gracious person running point in the lobby; someone did actually call me back in a couple of hours, and I now have an appointment for tomorrow. Whew! SO glad all the paperwork is done & they just need to sign off on my documentation.