The number of LGBTQ+ Americans inquiring about moving to Canada has soared since Donald Trump’s re-election, campaigners have said, as people across the US wrestle with the fallout of rising anti-gay rhetoric, anti-trans executive orders, and the more than 600 bills targeting LGBTQ+ rights.
“So much is happening in the US right now and a lot of it is terrifying,” said Latoya Nugent of Rainbow Railroad, a North American charity that helps LGBTQI+ individuals escape violence and persecution in their home countries.
In the first eight months of this year, the organisation has received 4,197 calls from people living in the US – a surge of 760% compared with the same period last year. “The overwhelming majority of individuals who are reaching out want support with international relocation, which translates to ‘I want to get out of the US because I’m afraid of living here,’” said Nugent.
The phones at Rainbow Railroad – which usually receives about 12,000 calls a year from around the world – began lighting up in November, as more than 1,100 calls poured in within 24 hours after Trump’s re-election. “For the first time in our history, the US emerged as the number one country where people request help from,” said Nugent.
The trend seems likely to continue this year. “A significant number of them are reporting that they’re fearful of what may happen to them, given the political climate and the emerging policy and legal landscape for LGBTQI+ people,” Nugent said.
Since returning to office this year, Trump has carried out an unprecedented assault on the community: announcing that the US would only recognise two genders; targeting diversity, equity and inclusion measures; and signing executive orders that sought to exclude transgender people from the US military, limit their access to sport, and curtail gender-transition procedures for people under 19.
The president’s first 100 days in office saw LGBTQ+ individuals targeted at least 255 times, both via policy shifts and rhetoric, according to the US advocacy organisation Glaad.
Politicians in some US states have seized on the moment, presenting 604 anti-LGBTQ+ bills at the state level, according to tracking by the American Civil Liberties Union. Republicans in red states have sought measures that target same-sex marriage, while in May, Utah became the first state to explicitly bar the flying of LGBTQ+ flags at government buildings and schools. More than a dozen states soon followed with similar bans.
At Rainbow Railroad, about 61% of callers from the US identify as trans, said Nugent, reflecting the administration’s constant and relentless targeting of trans individuals.
Others told the organisation that they were nervously watching the attacks play out. “If you are aware of what’s happening globally, you know that this is the beginning of the worst that is to come,” she said. “In the US, trans-identified people have become the first line of attack against the entire LGBTQI+ community, and there’s this growing fear that it will not stop there.”
Despite the growing fears, the current Canadian options for those who feel persecuted in the US remain slim. Those who call Rainbow Railroad are told that the most likely options for relocation are via economic pathways or via family reunification.
Hope, however, has been sparked by two recent immigration cases.
In July, a Canadian judge halted plans to deport a non-binary artist from Minnesota, arguing that the decision had failed to take into account the “current conditions for LGBTQ, non-binary and transgender persons” in the US. Since then, debate has swirled over the extent to which the precedent will force immigration officials in Canada to consider the current climate for people in the US.
Another case that is being closely watched is that of a 22-year-old transgender woman from Arizona. After crossing into Canada earlier this year, Hannah Kreager filed an asylum claim in June, on the grounds that Trump’s anti-trans policies have left her fearing persecution.
Her lawyer, Yameena Ansari, described the case as potentially precedent-setting, in that it could recognise how the Trump administration has specifically targeted the LGBTQ+ community in the US. With these claims, “historically we’re talking about people from east Africa, west Africa, we’re talking about people from Russia or from Islamic countries, we are not talking about America,” she said. “But with each day that goes by, I feel more and more convinced that she has a legitimate claim.”
The claim, which Ansari said could be heard as early as next summer, has sparked debate across the country, with many pointing to fact that refugees in Canada must demonstrate that they cannot obtain protection from their home state and that they are unable to relocate to a safe place anywhere within their own country.
The last point, in particular, has left Ansari preparing to show that there is no other US state in which her client could be safe. “If she goes into a federal building, she cannot pee in the right bathroom,” she said. “If she’s locked up in a federal institution, where are they going to lock her up? Are they going to lock her up in the male institution? Are they going to provide her with gender-affirming care?”
From the start, her client had understood that this route was far from guaranteed. But she had seized on it, seeing it as a singular chance to carve out a safe exit path for herself and the many others reeling from the Trump administration’s constant and relentless attacks, said Ansari. “She’s not just doing this for herself. For her, this is very much a cause.”
The glimmer of hope had led to a raft of calls from others in similar situations, she added. “Already just her courage in bringing this forward has inspired a lot of people in her community,” she said. “Right now I have so many more clients coming to me. Why? Because they read about Hannah’s case and they know there’s some lawyer who sees their pain and doesn’t dismiss it. Who says this is real and I think it’s so real that the courts should recognise your fear.”
