Travel, Technology, and the Right to Belong with Maria Hernandez
episode
The RISE Traveler: Unpacking Conversations of Sustainable Travel
21 min
1 speaker
6 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What does the opening introduction reveal about the purpose of the Rise Traveler series?
Hello and welcome. Wherever you are in the world today, thank you for joining us for the Rise Traveler, unpacking conversations of sustainable travel. We are here to talk to equal-minded and socially conscious travelers, diversity and inclusion specialists, wildlife conservationists, environmental activists, and anyone using travel as a way to uplift and inspire. Together we will go a step beyond the Instagram ready world travel. and take a look at how travel can be a source of growth and development for all people and all communities. This podcast is an extension of the Rise Travel Institute. Five oh one C three nonprofit committed to empowering young travelers through educational programs. Research, study tours, and scholarships.
Visit Rise Travel Institute dot org to learn more. And now, here's your host, Amy Hager.
Hello, hello, hello, wherever you are in the world today. Thank you for joining us. I am so excited to have Maria Hernandez on for a second episode. And so if you missed our first conversation, please go back and listen before jumping into this one so that way it all makes sense. But thanks for coming back for a second round, Maria.
Happy to be here.
You just have so many great thoughts. We couldn't get it all in one episode. And so, um, yo, as we kind of jump into our conversation today. When we think about your life experiences and this decisions that you've made in order to live your life to the fullest. I'm curious what your perspective is on how you see the future of travel, especially when it comes to the drin the transgender community.
Oh. Wow. You sure this isn't gonna be four episodes?
Yeah, can you shake that crystal ball and see through it? I know it might be a little cloudy.
Yeah, I have thoughts and feelings. Um, so first of all, I I just want to kind of hearken back to the the fact that all this stuff with identification and political borders, it's all stuff that people made up. Right. Um, whereas, you know, each of our own identities and our lives and who we are as people, we're also making that up as we go. That is that is human existence. That is life. Every day you wake up and you make choices, right? Yeah. Yeah. And ideally those choices are gonna be good for you and good for those around you. Right. Um I made choices, not always the right choices. I learned lessons. I'm not gonna say they were the wrong choices.
We all learn lessons. That's how that's the human experience.
Right. We learn lessons and and so forth. I chose to live my life as a transgender woman out. Um I I know that I am not a stealth trans woman, that nobody could ever tell that I'm trans. If you know if you've ever met a trans woman, uh it's pretty obvious to most people when they meet me that I'm a trans woman. I am personally okay with that because I am who I am.
Yeah.
I'm not trying not to be who I am. I just don't want to be marginalized further because of who I am. And unfortunately that is in that Venn diagram, in that intersection of being transgender and dealing with all of the laws surrounding identification and travel and things like that. There's problems. So for example, um in some states in the United States, um, you can have an X for your gender. So that represents the notion that I don't play this gender game. I'm not gonna be M. I'm not gonna be F. I'm gonna be me. So I'm gonna put a X there. Because why do you need to know if I'm male or female or whatever on my ID any Anyway, what matters is the number, right?
The problem is that if you have a X on your identification in your state, you cannot use that towards points for your passport. Right. Right. And so what that means is if you have a X on your driver's license, which is totally legal in some states. You can't get a federal ID that has that same marker and therefore you can't leave the country.
Yeah.
Right. And that's a decision about how you represent your identity. Um
How does Maria Hernandez describe her experience as a transgender traveler navigating gender markers on IDs?
Preventing you literally from leaving the country because of the way things are set up. Right. For a law abiding citizen who decides I don't wanna be labeled gender wise.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What does the opening introduction reveal about the purpose of the Rise Traveler series?
0:01–4:56
2
How does Maria Hernandez describe her experience as a transgender traveler navigating gender markers on IDs?
4:56–6:53
3
Why can an “X” gender marker on a state ID prevent a traveler from obtaining a passport?
6:53–10:12
4
How do biometric technologies like facial recognition and fingerprinting shape modern travel security?
10:12–14:13
5
What trade‑offs exist between privacy and security when governments use travel data for surveillance?
14:13–18:31
6
How might credit scores and socioeconomic privilege restrict who can travel internationally?
18:31–21:06