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| - In late January 2025, social media users and journalists, including independent reporter Ken Klippenstein (below), noted a significant change to a U.S. State Department website: A page that once provided tips and information for American "LGBTQI+ travelers" — lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex — had been changed to provide tips only for "LGB travelers."
This change to the State Department website was real, as were screenshots that documented it on social media, so this claim is true.
A Nov 12, 2024, archive of this page, listed among resources for "travelers with special considerations," captured this text:
LGBTQI+ Travelers
LGBTQI+ travelers can face special challenges abroad. Laws and attitudes in some countries may affect safety and ease of travel. Many countries do not recognize same-sex marriage. About 70 countries consider consensual same-sex relations a crime. In some of these countries, individuals who engage in same-sex sexual relations may face severe punishment.
At the time of this reporting, however, that same portion of the State Department website reads:
LGB Travelers
LGB travelers can face special challenges abroad. Laws and attitudes in some countries may affect safety and ease of travel. 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.
In addition, the earlier version of the page provided this now-omitted guidance for intersex travelers:
Information for Travelers with an X Gender Marker on their passport
U.S. citizens can select an X as their gender marker on their U.S. passport application. […] Although the U.S. government issues passports with the X gender marker, it cannot guarantee your entry or transit through other countries. Some countries do not recognize the X gender marker. In these countries, you may face entry restrictions. Check with the foreign embassy or consulate in the United States before you travel.
These alterations are an apparent result of an executive order signed on U.S. President Donald Trump's first day in office in 2025, titled "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government." Among other things, the order said that "it is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female." It also issued a specific directive for all federal government agencies:
Agencies shall remove all statements, policies, regulations, forms, communications, or other internal and external messages that promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology, and shall cease issuing such statements, policies, regulations, forms, communications or other messages. Agency forms that require an individual's sex shall list male or female, and shall not request gender identity. Agencies shall take all necessary steps, as permitted by law, to end the Federal funding of gender ideology.
Later, the White House Office of Personnel Management released a memo to all federal agencies that required, among other things, the removal of "all outward facing media (websites, social media accounts, etc.) that inculcate or promote gender ideology" by Jan. 31.
The page on LGBTQI+ travelers is not the only erasure of the "TQI+" from the State Department's websites. A page once titled "Resources for LGBTQI+ Prospective Adoptive Parents" was changed, on Jan. 31, to "Resources for LGB Prospective Adoptive Parents."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio had not commented on the changes to the websites.
Because the change removing "TQI+" from State Department websites is real and accurately documented in screenshots, the claim that the State Department eliminated references to transgender or intersex travelers on its websites is true.
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