I’m driving on the 10 freeway cutting west when the call comes. “Hello,” a voice says, before misgendering me with an honorific. “This is a courtesy call from the Los Angeles Passport Agency … I’m calling to let you know that we can’t process your passport application.” The voice is telling me that I will not be able to pick up the passport with an updated gender marker that I am currently driving to pick up. “New rules from the top,” is how he puts it. But then, in December—as we were all