State Department Issues Anti-Transgender Directive Targeting Visas of Trans Athletes and Trans Individuals Seeking Visas

As reported by The Guardian earlier today, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued the directive via state department cable to officials across the globe on February 24th.

According to The Guardian:

"The 24 February state department cable obtained by the Guardian instructs visa officers to apply Immigration and Nationality Act section 212(a)(6)(C)(i) – the "permanent fraud bar" – against trans applicants. Unlike regular visa denials, this section triggers lifetime exclusion from the United States with limited waiver possibilities."

The directive issued by Secretary Rubio also states:

"In cases where applicants are suspected of misrepresenting their purpose of travel or sex, you should consider whether this misrepresentation is material such that it supports an ineligibility finding."

While this is currently a directive at the state department level, it's clear the administration is testing the waters for making this unconstitutional discrimination a matter of law. With Trump's anti-trans executive orders earlier this month, the administration's intentional erasure of trans identities and history from national archives, and the adoption of binary language around sex and gender, it's clear Trump's using the same anti-trans Nazi playbook that served as a prelude to the holocaust. The only difference is instead of burning trans literature and science they're erasing trans history from digital archives and denying the science around transgender identities.

Attacking transgender Americans and those who would immigrate here as their authentic selves is not just arguably unconstitutional, it's bigoted and dehumanizing. Trans people exist, whether Republicans choose to accept that reality or not. They're not going anywhere, and they don't have to prove their value or worth to a party that's been overrun by sycophantic cultists who want to take us back to the 1950s.