Welcome to The Newsfeed.

I'm Paris Jackson.

For trans Americans, traveling internationally is becoming increasingly difficult as they find themselves stuck in limbo.

This occurring amid new federal executive orders to eliminate provisions that allow people to select their gender marker on federal IDs.

An executive order from the Trump administration changed the guidelines from the U.S. Department of State to require that a person's biological sex at birth be reflected on federal identification documents, such as passports.

Cascade PBS reporter Josh Cohen joins me to explain the current policy and the legal fight surrounding it.

What does at issue right now for trans Americans applying for passports?

So on day one of the Trump administration, back in January, he signed an executive order saying that the gender markers on people's passports had to, match their sex at birth.

And so for trans Americans who want a passport to match their identity, this is a challenge.

And they were no longer able to get a passport that matches their gender.

So the ACLU and some trans and non-binary citizens sued the administration over this order, arguing it violated their rights.

In June, a federal judge in Massachusetts issued an injunction in the case saying that while the case plays out, passport offices, the State Department have to follow the the old way that they have to allow people to get passports that match their preferred gender.

What was the previous administrations policy on federal identification?

So under the Biden administration, you could self-select your gender.

And also for non-binary people, you could get the gender marker X.

Tell me a little bit more about the people that you met while doing this reporting and how they're being affected.

Yeah.

One of the main people I spoke to is this woman, Renee Raketty.

She's the publisher and owner of Seattle Gay News.

She saw the writing on the wall and tried to get an updated passport, before Biden left office, but sort of in the shuffle of bureaucracy, ended up not getting a corrected passport and then tried again after the injunction and ran into this problem of, the local passport office saying, well, there's nothing we can do until the State Department issues new guidance.

This was back in early June.

At this point, she and many others just hit a wall where they couldn't get the passport.

It's like a legitimate safety issue, Renee said.

You know, you travel anywhere, but especially maybe traveling abroad.

If you have a passport with a gender marker that doesn't match the gender that you're presenting, sort of at best, it can create problems.

You know, you get pulled into a secondary search by TSA because they're confused about what's going on.

But but at worst, you know, it's outing you every time you present your federal ID and, you know, sadly, we live in a world that can often be hostile to trans people.

And a lot of legal wrangling still continues.

What does your reporting suggest the outcome will ultimately be?

There was an update.

The State Department did issue guidance to local passport offices on July 2nd... Saying that people who are part of this class action lawsuit, that they can do it, that they're complying with the federal judge's injunction.

It remains to be seen how much local passport offices are following that.

But at least for the time being, it appears that, the federal government is complying with the court order and people should, in theory, be able to update their passports for the time being as this court case plays out.

I'm Paris Jackson, thank you for watching The Newsfeed, your destination for nonprofit northwest news.

Go to CascadePBS.org for more great local coverage.