Zoey Faegrin keeps a copy of a court order in her purse, hoping she won’t need to show it to anyone.
The 38-year-old started transitioning two and a half years ago. A Marion County judge accepted changes to her legal name and gender markers, ordering the state to update her birth certificate, driver’s license and other documents to match.
But a second Trump presidency is here.
Faegrin watched as the new president said his administration would recognize only “two biological sexes” — men and women. She saw the results: transgender and nonbinary people like her couldn’t update their passports anymore.
When Gov. Mike Braun signed a nearly identical executive order March 4, Faegrin felt frozen. Now, the Indiana Department of Health has stopped accepting gender changes on birth certificates.
The records are important for getting a driver’s license, passport and Social Security card — documents that can affirm a person’s identity and protect them from being outed against their will.
Faegrin didn’t get her changes approved until February — and Braun’s executive order soon followed, with the state health department blanketly denying requests. She sent in her court order for processing, but doesn’t expect the Indiana Department of Health to accept the changes for her gender markers.
“They’re trying to legislate me out of existence,” she told Mirror Indy. “I’m scared to do something and I’m scared not to do something.”
So, the court order remained in her bag, while the “what ifs” grew louder in her head. She imagined government agencies confiscating her current documents if she tried to change them — or encounters with police and public officials gone wrong.
“I don’t want to be this person with two identities,” Faegrin said. “I need these things changed, otherwise I could be seen as living fraudulently.”
And she isn’t the only one in limbo.
ACLU of Indiana files lawsuit
Previously in Indiana, gender markers were among many things a person could amend with a court order — including name and birth date changes, paternity information and corrections for errors.
“Trans folks are not just doing this on a whim,” said Chris Daley, the executive director for the ACLU of Indiana. “They are going to court and presenting very intimate details of their life to a judge.”
Once a judge orders a name or gender marker change, Daley said, it’s up to the vital records division at the Indiana Department of Health to process the request and issue a new birth certificate. But that’s not happening anymore.
A spokesperson for the state health department said it is “complying” with Braun’s executive order by no longer accepting gender change requests.
The ACLU of Indiana filed a class action lawsuit March 28 on behalf of transgender residents affected, arguing the state health department cannot ignore orders from judges. In a court filing, the ACLU said Braun’s executive order discriminates against transgender Hoosiers and violates their privacy.
“It’s extremely mean-spirited,” Daley said. “No one in the state is harmed or has their rights infringed when someone else’s birth certificate reflects their gender identity.”
The case is in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.
Braun has doubled-down since the lawsuit.
“Replacing the scientific fact of biology with the always-changing, self-reported idea of ‘gender identity’ has negative consequences for women and kids,” the governor’s spokesperson wrote in a March 31 email to Mirror Indy. “We have confidence in the attorney general’s ability to defend the state in this matter.”
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita did not respond to Mirror Indy’s request for comment about the birth certificate policy change, though he has been a vocal opponent of gender-affirming care. His office is also in charge of reviewing gender change requests that were in process when the executive order was announced, per the state health department.
That means Faegrin’s pending changes will be in the hands of a politician who has publicly mocked the pride flag.
So Faegrin keeps her court order close, hoping the litigation means the changes to her documents will be accepted one day. She paid the fees so more copies could live outside her purse.
One is in her car. The other is tucked in the pages of the book she’s reading, “Relationship Anarchy,” holding the place.
‘Live authentically and visibly’
Not everyone feels the urgency to update their records. After Trump won the election, Key King decided it wasn’t worth it.
“I saw this coming,” said the 39-year-old, who also works as an Indy Documenter. “I don’t need the government trying to invalidate my existence.”
The latest executive order is just another blow, Key said, in a state that’s already banned gender-affirming care for minors and is moving to bar transgender women from competing in college sports. Federal actions are affecting people here, too — including transgender veterans who may lose access to health care.
Key said the documents won’t protect him from a government taking these kinds of actions.
“The paperwork is important for when they criminalize you,” he said. “I’m Black, so I’m already criminalized.”
Still, he said, it’s important for others to have these records if they want them, especially with safety concerns.
“As much as I experience the horrors of a second Trump administration, I am going to make it my mission to live authentically and visibly, and have as much joy as possible.”
— Andre Hardy, 23
That was true for Andre Hardy, a 23-year-old who lives downtown. When he turned 21, he didn’t go out to bars or restaurants that required an ID to celebrate his birthday — or for the whole year after. There was too much fear, especially since someone had accused him of stealing a girl’s ID in the past.
“I felt very trapped,” Hardy said. “I couldn’t do the things I wanted to do.”
He received grant funding to help cover the cost of updating his documents. Looking at them made him sigh with relief. It also pushed him to pull out a T-shirt hiding in his drawer and wear it to work: “Trans Rights are Human Rights,” it reads.
“As much as I experience the horrors of a second Trump administration,” Hardy said, “I am going to make it my mission to live authentically and visibly, and have as much joy as possible.”
At 22, he went to his first bar. He showed his ID and ordered a strawberry prosecco cocktail.
Mirror Indy reporter Mary Claire Molloy covers health. Reach her at 317-721-7648 or email maryclaire.molloy@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X @mcmolloy7.
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