State Department Travel Safety Website Removes Recognition of Trans People

First reported by Jo Yurcaba at NBC News, the State Department’s travel safety website for LGBTQIA+ travelers has been altered to focus solely on LGB travelers. The site, which serves as a resource for gender and sexual minorities navigating international travel, provides key information such as a “traveler’s checklist” and country-specific safety details. However, the latest changes not only remove transgender and queer people from the acronym but also erase transgender-specific guidance from individual country pages, stripping vital information that once helped trans travelers assess risks and plan accordingly.

Last week, the page was altered as part of a government-wide purge of references to transgender people. This systematic erasure extends to health information removed from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Bureau of Prisons, USAID, and the Census Bureau. Additionally, federal agencies have been instructed to retract journal articles containing “forbidden terms” such as “transgender.” The purge has even gone so far as to implement automatic filters that strip pronouns from email signatures, erasing instances of “she/her,” “they/them,” and “he/him.”

Now, the state department website no longer reads that it is a guideline for “LGBTQI+ travelers” and simply reads “LGB travelers,” entirely removing transgender people from consideration. The entire page removes all references to transgender people, and indicates that even in the arena of travel safety, the Trump administration does not consider transgender people to even exist as a class of people.

Not only have transgender people been removed from the website title, but the changes extend far beyond aesthetics. In individual country sections, vital information specific to transgender travelers has also been erased. Russia’s page no longer mentions laws that explicitly target transgender individuals, and Qatar’s page has been stripped of language regarding X gender markers. Critical safety information that once helped transgender travelers navigate potential risks is now entirely absent from the State Department’s website and country-specific pages.

The decision to remove transgender people from the acronym appears rooted in efforts to push the narrative that LGBTQIA+ individuals do not consider transgender people part of their community. Organizations like the LGB Alliance in the United Kingdom, which was formed specifically to exclude transgender people from civil rights protections, have made this argument central to their mission. However, a YouGov poll contradicts this notion, showing that only 3% of respondents believe the acronym should include only LGB people. This suggests that the view is a fringe position promoted by outside actors seeking to divide the community rather than a belief widely held within it.

The systematic erasure of transgender people from legal recognition, government websites, and federal data is not without historical precedent. In the early 1930s, one of the first acts of Nazi power was the looting of the Magnus Hirschfeld Institute of Sexology, where 30,000 pioneering books on transgender and queer identities were burned — images that now serve as stark reminders in history books across the United States. Today, the U.S. government is orchestrating a modern-day purge, not with fire, but through the wholesale deletion of transgender existence from federal records and public policy. History has shown where such actions lead, and the public must recognize the warning signs before it is too late.

This piece was republished with permission from Erin In The Morning.