Trans Americans Are Fleeing the United States

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Trujillo and her family are not the only Americans who have left the U.S. amid mounting restrictions on transgender rights. Rainbow Railroad, a global nonprofit that helps LGBTQ+ people escape state-sponsored violence, has received a record-high number of requests for help from U.S. citizens since Trump’s reelection, according to Latoya Nugent, head of engagement at the organization. “That trend has continued,” she says. “The U.S. continues to be the number one country where people are requesting help from,” as of Oct. 6. Around two-thirds of the requests the group has received are from people who are transgender.

The surging efforts to flee from—instead of immigrate to—the U.S. mark a notable break from the past. The country has been regarded as a desired destination for immigrants seeking to escape targeted policies or persecution—including LGBTQ+ people. Now, it’s become a place many trans people, and their families, are trying to leave for the same reason.

The urgency to move elsewhere, Trujillo and others say, is due to the Trump Administration’s anti-trans policies: On his first day back in office, the President signed an Executive Order—which currently faces an injunction but is moving through the courts—recognizing just “two sexes, male and female,” seeking to bar transgender people from updating their gender markers on federal documents. In the following weeks, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a memo discrediting gender-affirming-care—which is supported by every major medical association in the U.S. In July, the Department of Justice issued more than 20 subpoenas to investigate doctors and clinics that provide gender-affirming care to minors.

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