Trump Administration Removes Trans Individuals From LGBTQI Travel Information Resources

04.02.2025 - 16:27 / travelandleisure.com / Donald Trump

Just days after President Donald Trump took office for the second time, he signed an executive order making it U.S. government policy to only recognize male and female sex. Quickly thereafter, the U.S. State Department suspended the processing of passports for applicants who selected “X” as their preferred gender. Now, the State Department has also removed the letters «TQ» from its official travel website, which now reads, «LGB.» 

«LGB travelers can face special challenges abroad. Laws and attitudes in some countries may affect safety and ease of travel,» the website reads, closely mirroring what it did just a few weeks ago, only this time, without the recognition of transgender and queer travelers. «Many countries do not recognize same-sex marriage. Many countries also only recognize the male and female sex markers in passports and do not have IT systems at ports of entry that can accept other sex markers. About 70 countries still consider consensual same-sex relations a crime. In some of these countries, individuals who engage in same-sex sexual relations may face severe punishment.» 

What remains unclear — and unsettling — to transgender travelers is if the U.S. will join the «many countries» the State Department says only recognize other sex markers. 

«I recently had my passport change completed late last year and had my marker updated from male to female. With the removal of trans from the State Department website, it's clear that they are trying all they can to erase the trans community,» Christina* shared with Travel + Leisure. 

«We have become the easy excuse for all of the problems in the nation, and it's sad as some of the hardest working and intelligent people are transgender. We have a knack for being in highly technical fields such as IT. I cannot say for sure why that is, but I can only guess it's due to our ability to research an issue as that's our go-to when we try to find the inconsistency between mind and body.» 

As Christina adds, the community, like other minority groups, has experienced this before, but this time, it feels much more «aggressive.» 

«This time, it feels like the Republican party intends to find ways to make us leave the U.S. for good, place us in prison, and erase us from history. My fear is that if I choose to use my U.S. passport to leave the country, I will have no issues being received by other places, but I no longer know what will happen when I return.»

It's a fear shared by Esther, a U.S.-based traveler, who was traveling when all the changes took place and now had no idea how she'd be received. «I'm currently sitting in the airport waiting for my return flight,» she wrote in an email to T+L. «I left the country to attend my brother's graduation from college