TRAVELLING THE GLOBE AS THE NEW ME.
Trans community. Anxiety. A new passport.
It’s that time of year again, summer holidays – yay – except for many transgender folk – particularly for those relatively early into their transition such as myself – the thought of international travel can be a very daunting prospect and a cause of anxiety.
It’s not that I find travel in itself particularly stressful or challenging; indeed, a few years ago I used to have a job that was 100% travel across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and used to come home for just a couple of weeks at Christmas. I had an absolutely fantastic time, visited so many incredible places and was so lucky to be able to enjoy plenty of unforgettable experiences. However, this was in my old life; pre-transition.
Uncertainty as to how I will be treated at the airport (both at passport control and security) and whether I might have any trouble from fellow passengers on the aeroplane is quite unsettling. One hopes that the UK airports are diverse and progressive enough for this not to be too much of an issue, but how I will be received at the destination country can be more worrying.
Still, first things first...passport. How do I go about obtaining a passport in my new gender identity? Many people simply don’t appreciate just what an administrative challenge changing your gender is. There’s bank accounts, credit cards, pensions, insurances, driving licence, tax authority, NHS records, mobile phone contracts, utilities, etc, to worry about. It becomes almost a full-time job in itself. I also questioned whether this would even be possible without having an official gender recognition certificate (which I do not yet have, as to obtain one you are required to live full-time in your adopted gender for a minimum of two years).
When considering applying for my new passport, the application process seemed to be much easier if I already had a driving licence in my new name and gender. I therefore started with that which I managed to obtain by sending a new photo, deed poll with my change of name and letter from my GP stating that I was transitioning and that the change is intended to be permanent – no gender recognition certificate required. £14 later and a couple of weeks of waiting and I had my shiny new driving licence. God, what an awful photo though!
Using my new driving licence, I then went on to apply for my new passport. This was a surprisingly easy and efficient process and again, a gender recognition certificate was not required. My passport was duly forthcoming.
When actually, time-consuming as it has been, changing my name and gender across many areas of my life has been relatively straight forward. The only place where I am still having trouble with is Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs where they’ve changed my name, but still refuse to change my gender until I have a gender recognition certificate – this seems very odd to me, the passport office and DVLA both accept my gender, but the tax authorities won’t. Anyway, this is meant to be about travel and I appear to be getting boed down in telling you about getting boed down in admin.
It’s quite hard to find travel advice specifically for trans folk. The majority of websites simply name safe and unsafe countries for the wider LGBTQ community. While this is useful, and probably acts as a good indicator, trans folk can often be a lot more visible than others within our broader community which heightens their safety risk. Many LGB people cannot be obviously identified as such simply by their appearance, and therefore can choose who they come out to and when. This can be of significant advantage when travelling to countries that are less tolerant and less supportive of diversity. The harsh reality is that many trans folk, particularly those at early stages of their transition, can often be ‘clocked’ or ‘sussed’ as such. While this shouldn’t (and in many countries doesn’t) matter, it can significantly increase the risk to their safety when travelling to or through less progressive and inclusive societies.
A simple Google search will uncover all sorts of scary horror stories of transgender people having bad experiences travelling to certain countries. Transgender Europe’s latest Trans Murder Monitoring Report (Yes, I’m dismayed to learn that this is an actual thing) advises that Central and South America has by far the highest transgender murder rate globally. Indeed, they had almost five times the number of trans murders than the rest of the world put together. Brazil had by far the highest absolute number of murders, whilst Honduras had the highest number of murders per capita. Many countries in Africa, Middle East and parts of Asia also fare poorly in terms of LGBTQ rights and safety.
On a more positive note, there’s many countries that are reported to be very safe and welcoming to the LGBTQ community. Countries such as Sweden, France, Canada, Belgium, Netherlands, Iceland, Finland, Spain, Norway, New Zealand and Denmark are all shining examples.
I decided that my first international trip as Zoë would be to Malta where I could stay for a few days with my uncle and his wife. I’m delighted to say that I had a lovely break and despite my nervousness and apprehension, my passage through both airports and the flights themselves was totally uneventful with absolutely no issues at passport control, security or with my fellow passengers. The people in Malta were welcoming and I made some great new friends that I’m looking forward to seeing again when I next return.
Emboldened by this successful trip, last month I also took my two sons on holiday to Mallorca and Norway. This trip contained the additional challenge of checking in to a hotel as the real me for the first time and mingling with other hotel guests – but again, the whole trip was a fantastic experience and I did not encounter any problems at all.
The only real challenge I faced was selecting appropriate swimwear while still ‘budgie-smuling’ – swim dresses and skirted bikinis were the answer.
Final tips for any trans women travellers: take some decent waterproof makeup for the pool and beach that also has a decent SPF rating, and if you have hormone medication in a paste or cream consistency these will be considered as liquids, so remember to pack these in your suitcase rather than hand luage if over 100ml. Safe travels.