This was really helpful for me as a person living outside of the United States. We can feel the tension from across the Pacific but reading through the very real scenarios is sobering.
I am not trans, but I’ve been putting together a similar plan to evacuate my trans nephew from the red state he’s in, to here in California.
I unfortunately don’t have the resources to potentially help them get out of the country, but I have family who do, though I haven’t actually broached that subject with them (and I suspect that broaching it at this point wouldn’t go anywhere except making them think I’m being alarmist).
Right now it feels like watching a storm build on the horizon, and trying to figure out how bad it’s going to be when it gets here.
So, I spent the entirety of the Biden Administration saving, planning and then executing an emigration plan. It didn’t work because immigration laws change constantly in Canada because racists want to frustrate our freedoms, just like they do at the American southern border. Internationally we live under feudalism. I wasted 4 years and thousands of dollars learning this. If you are lower, working, or middle class, you will not be able to emigrate to another country unless you are willing to do so extra-legally.
At some point, some countries will start granting asylum to US refugees. It will likely be too little, and too late… but if it’s your only option, it’ll be better than nothing.
Don’t BS people with this. Asylum sucks like jail and countries within reach aren’t going to offer it.
The actual “only options” involve large amounts of money and/ or abandoning your social standing. These are more realistic than asylum.
Losing social standing is implied. The options are:
- Shallow grave
- Being hunted
- Jail
- Undocumented
- Asylum <– better than / worse than
- Working abroad
- Vacation
- Large amounts of money
Maybe you think “asylum = jail”, I don’t think that. Based on historical precedent, jail is more likely to lead to a shallow grave than asylum.
You are right about jail being likely to lead to a shallow grave but would you share more about what you think Asylum is like? I have lots of 1st hand experience around jails but none around asylum, I just know asylum seekers who have compared it to jail.
Asylum is living legally in a country, it ranges all the way from homelessness to a penthouse. You may be thinking of “waiting for asylum”, at the equivalent of concentration camps. Not every asylum seeker has to go through that, for example people from Ukraine in the EU got a fast-tracked refugee status:
https://unric.org/en/ukraine-over-6-million-refugees-spread-across-europe/
I’m not Ukranian, I can’t benefit from that. HBU?
As I said:
At some point, some countries will start granting asylum to US refugees.
I’m a EU citizen. Some people want to copy the US, but we’re still at the “trying to stop them” phase, not at the “impending doom” phase.
What scares me (living in a comparatively sane country) is that even though on most levels I’m fully aware that this is actually happening right now, a part of my mind keeps insisting that the thought of any of this being real is an absolutely ridiculous idea. It just seems way too dystopian to have anything in common with reality.
All the strength and luck to those who find themselves in the same situation as the author(s).
Very eye-opening read in terms of specificity.
Really love this, me and mine already got a ways down this planning path, but there are some really great tips I hadn’t considered. It also feels nice to know that my thoughts are shared by yet another.
