As transphobia rises in US, increasing numbers of transgender people aim to emigrate
- Non-profit TRANSport helps transgender Americans desperate to leave, while new research paper says fleeing US citizens filed 14,000 asylum claims since 2000
- Team creates individual strategy for anyone seeking to move, whether to Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, or elsewhere
Rynn Azerial Willgohs, a 51-year-old transgender woman who is active in the LGBTQ-rights community in Fargo, North Dakota, has endured severe harassment, doxxing - the act of publicly providing identifiable information about an individual - and stalking, and has had to move homes. The next time she relocates, she hopes it will be to Iceland.
When Willgohs visited the remote island nation in the Atlantic on the northernmost fringes of Europe for the first time last year, she was struck by the level of acceptance and the difference in social attitudes. In the next couple of years, Willgohs plans to go into self-imposed exile and leave the US for a place that feels more secure and has more protections for LGBTQ people.
Amid an onslaught of anti-LGBTQ legislation across the country, Willgohs helped found TRANSport – a new organisation to help “at-risk” transgender people leave the hostile environment in the US and relocate to a “more accepting world”, says its website.
She said the group had received more than 100 applications in the past few weeks.
TRANSport aims to give financial help to those who want to move abroad, help get their legal documents in order, and offer general advice and support to navigate the process.
“It’s a lifesaving measure for many people,” Willgohs told Insider.