Transgender influencer takes on Trump over passports

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When Zaya Perysian received her new passport in the mail in late January, she knew exactly who to blame for why it listed her, a transgender woman, as male: President Trump, our colleagues Nate Raymond, Omar Younis and Roselle Chen report.

First the California social media influencer took to TikTok to express her frustrations with what she called the "big ugly M" the U.S. State Department under Trump mandated her new passport feature. And then she sued, along with six other transgender and non-binary people who argue the policy is unconstitutional.

The 22-year-old is now waiting to see whether a federal judge in Boston agrees. The closely watched case is challenging a policy the department adopted in accordance with an executive order signed by the Republican president on his first day back in office. That executive order directed the federal government to recognize only two, biologically distinct sexes - male and female - and directed the State Department to change its policies to only issue passports that "accurately reflect the holder's sex."

Samuel Corum/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

The U.S. State Department has agreed to pay $1.1 million to settle a lawsuit over legal fees sought by a former top U.S. official who testified against President Trump during his first impeachment.

Gordon Sondland, who served as Trump's ambassador to the European Union, accused the State Department in a 2021 lawsuit of violating an oral agreement to pay his legal bills, which he said were $1.8 million.

Sondland, a wealthy Republican donor and hotelier, testified to lawmakers about Trump's interactions with Ukraine in 2019, ahead of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Sondland was fired in 2020.

Read more in this week's Billable Hours. 

Is the best defense a strong offense? Consider a move by U.S. property management software firm RealPage, which sued the city of Berkeley, California, in federal court last week, alleging that a new ordinance barring local landlords from using AI-driven pricing algorithms to set residential rents is an unconstitutional ban on free speech. Jenna Greene looks at the fight, which comes as RealPage faces a barrage of antitrust litigation by federal and state enforcers and private plaintiffs, in On the Case. 

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caitlin.tremblay@thomsonreuters.com

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