Aria Trucios understands that some people can be a little confused when meeting them for the first time. “I present in a very gender non-conforming way,” Trucios said. “My body can appear feminine, but I also present and dress masculine.”
Trucios, who lives in Middleton, doesn’t identify as either male or female and uses they/them pronouns. In recent years, they have established their gender as the nonbinary “X” on legal documents — including their California birth certificate, Wisconsin driver’s license, U.S. passport and a Wisconsin concealed gun carry permit.
“Having something that indicates that I might not be rigidly one way or the other calls out the gray,” Trucios told “Wisconsin Today.” “And I feel more comfortable. I feel like it represents how I present day to day better.”
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For decades, trans people have been allowed to change their gender marker on passports and in 2021, the Biden administration began allowing the nonbinary X.
The Trump administration is now requiring people to use the gender they were originally assigned on their birth certificates on passports. The State Department says existing passports with a nonbinary status are valid until they expire.
The new requirement is being challenged in the courts, but for now the U.S. Supreme Court is allowing the administration’s rule to stay in place.
Trucios talked with host Rob Ferrett about the new requirement and the climate that transgender people face under Trump’s second term.
The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
RF: What was the process like for changing the gender marker on your passport?
AT: It was fairly straightforward … Essentially you assert that is your identity, that is truly who you are. As I’d already been going through the medical process for a number of years, I wanted to reflect the changes that my body had gone through. If I’m at a border crossing or if I’m going on a flight, I want the person that I’m interacting with to be able to look at my ID and say, “OK, yeah, that kind of lines up with what’s going on here.”
RF: The Trump administration is now saying (a new) passport has to align with the gender marked on your birth certificate. What are your thoughts on that change?
AT: I understand the motivations. It’s the eradication of transgenderism from public life that many people on the right have been pushing for years … There’s a lot of other things on my birth certificate that have also changed that don’t follow me for the rest of my life. I was born with red hair. I do not have red hair today. My hair has just changed over many years. When I got my driver’s license at 16, I didn’t put red hair down because it was a brownish blonde at the time, and when I got my passport for the first time, it was the same thing.
Because it’s an identity document, the purpose of it is for you to have a piece of plastic that’s certified by the federal government that says this is who you are, and if you were to present it, it shows and proves that not only are you a citizen of the United States, but that it is specifically you as an individual with that documentation.
Would they consider it a fraudulent document if I look like a woman, but have an M on there?
RF: Another document that you have that nonbinary ID on is a concealed carry permit. The Trump administration has reportedly considered trying to ban transgender people from owning firearms using the argument that they are mentally defective. They have not publicly pursued that rule at this point. What was your response when you saw that?
AT: Transgender people are significantly less likely to be the actors of these horrible (shooting) events that we’ve seen … To target transgender people is just an opportunist move to try to come after us and our rights. So I have been really afraid since they have started talking about this.
I know people who’ve been attacked for using the bathroom in public. I know people who’ve had guns pulled on them for using the bathroom or while they’re parking their car, or they’re walking their dog. I know people who will not leave the house at all without a firearm, even when they go get the groceries or go to work, because they don’t feel that they can be outside in public without a firearm.
