Despite Trump’s recent executive order attacking transgender civilians and military service members, one individual appears to have fallen through the cracks regarding their legal requirement to be drafted. More specifically, a trans man in Pennsylvania received a letter from the government telling him that he should register with selective services. As everyone is aware, failing to register can result in a fine of up to $250,000 or a prison term of up to five years. However, this person is concerned about how filling out the form will impact their legal status as a male.
“With everything happening with trans people’s passports being changed or denied, I’m a little concerned that sending this documentation will lead to my legal gender being changed back to F [female],” the Pennsylvania resident nervously tells Reddit. He says that he’s strongly considering registering regardless “to avoid the hassle of admin and paperwork.” Still, it’s not an issue he wouldn’t have thought of prior to the current presidency. “This question is so tricky, especially right now,” a Reddit user remarks. They continue, advising OP to visit a civil rights expert. “I recommend that you reach out to Lambda Legal or the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) for assistance.”
“If you are legally male in the US in the relevant ages and resident categories, you need to be registered or deal with a lot of paperwork headaches,” one person explains. The Pennsylvania trans man did say that he is legally male on everything legal except his birth certificate. The user continues: “In the unlikely event that there is a draft, you can present all of your relevant medical documentation then, which will probably make you ineligible to serve without a waiver.” However, they strongly warn against simply avoiding selective service registration altogether. “You will create many more problems for yourself by trying to get out of registering than just sending in the form as a legally male US citizen or permanent resident.”
One Reddit user also claiming to be a trans man told OP that he had simply selected the option in the registration form saying he was assigned female at birth and sent in scanned pictures of his old birth certificate and name change order. “[I] got a letter back to me saying that I wouldn’t be drafted, and that was it,” he claims. This is probably OP’s ticket out of the situation.
Of course, there were comments harassing the Pennsylvania transgender person for even existing. One person sarcastically remarked, “Congratulations and welcome to the standard male experience, I guess?” Luckily, many of the toxic comments were deleted, but OP still had to make it clear what he wanted from his post about his situation: “I asked for legal advice, not your thoughts on if I’m a man or not or what you feel like being a man means.” Hopefully, he can ignore the hate and follow the other trans man’s suggestion to move past this fiasco.
