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I Might Have To Flee The US As A Refugee... [1]

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Date: 2025-03-12

I’m trans & the anti-trans hate in this country is frightening. My room-mate & ex-wife are also both trans, & when my roomie saw this post, she FREAKED. I’m freaking right now, too. A simple shitty post caused a brief shitstorm at home with my room-mates. The rhetoric about people like us is off the rails, it borders on genocidal speech, & calls for us to be murdered are increasing. Yeah, that posting, which was a link to an article about recruiting in the military, still has us worried. What other policies of hate will come up?

Will I have to go back to Canada as a refugee? Will I have to give up everything I own in order to flee like so many refugees before me? Just the thought of the United States becoming so ugly that people might have to run to get out is disturbing on it’s own. Yes, it can happen here. I know that I’m “mostly” safe in California, at the moment, but it doesn’t take much to make that change. We saw states that were once reliably blue flip to red during the election, & my stomach hasn’t been settled since.

It’s fucking scary to see how many people in government & elsewhere putting on their jackboots to toe the line of the fascists. They’re being loud as usual, pushing their religious laws, their anti-LGBTQA hate, their anti-immigrant bigotry, their anti-woke ideas & anti-human policies. As usual, the GQP are looking for the most vulnerable & throwing us to the wolves.

As I said, I’m “mostly” safe in CA, yet even Newsom threw us to the wolves, just a few days ago. His pivot from protecting us to shitting on us was on a dime. It can happen even in CA.

My ex-wife & her partner are thinking about emigrating to New Zealand, because her partner has dual citizenship. That leaves me a bit in the lurch. Oh, they’ll help me get back to Canada, no worries, there, but it’s going to cost a lot of money to do it, & I will either have to fly (leaving everything I own & have built up behind) or travel through at least four red states to get to the border of my former home Province of Manitoba.

I have friends in my hometown who are willing to put me up until I get back on my feet. I’m already talking with some of them to be on the lookout for the notice that I have to flee, which could be months from now, or years, or hopefully, never happen. I know things could possibly stay mostly civil & I might not have to run, after all, but being prepared to run, just thinking about the possibility of having to run, that’s gonna keep me up at night.

They’ve already sent migrants to Guantanamo, so it wouldn’t take much for the same people to send people like me there, too. Or worse, to build camps to incarcerate us. It wouldn’t take much to criminalize being LGBTQA like they did in Germany 80 years ago. There are already politicians who are trying to get that to happen. Thankfully, there have been many judges who’ve been overturning the anti-trans laws that have managed to get through. I’m thankful for them every day.

Also, the Orange Buffoon’s policies are so bad & pissing off so many people, that Democrats might be getting back into control in a year & half. If that happens, trans & other LGBTQA+ people will be safer. I’m crossing my fingers for that, & of course, I’ll be voting if I’m still here.

Again, I’m gonna hope the worst doesn’t happen. I’m gonna hope saner heads will prevail, that those judges will keep shooting down those hateful laws, & hope the waiting on tenterhooks won’t give me a friggin’ ulcer.

Keep an eye on the news & on the rumour mill. Yeah, rumours aren’t normally a good source of info, but when things hit the fan, it might be an invaluable network for people on the run.

Never thought I’d have to worry about this, but there you go. I’m hoping trans people & other LGBTQA+ folks will actually be safe, that the backlash against the Orange Buffoon’s policies will keep things from going too far South. I know the “usual suspects” are generally MAGA Republicans, but there are plenty of supposedly Progressive Democrats who hate us, too. Watch out for them. Educate them, if you can. If we can march for women’s bodily autonomy & march for science, I hope we can fight for LGBTQA+ people, too.

Of course, this is mostly conjecture, my usual habit of being a worrywort & possibly letting my anxieties get to me, but at the same time, it doesn’t hurt to be cautious, right?

There is a group called Rainbow Railroad who work to get LGBTQA+ refugees into Canada. They’re worth supporting. Even if you don't know anyone who is LGBTQA+, supporting a group like this will always be worth it.

Wish me luck.

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