I am glad Monica and her wife are able to leave! I have seriously thought of uprooting my life to Canada, but have decided to stay and fight. If and when we make it through this tyranny, each of us will have major testimony. We just have to live to tell our tales. 🙏🏳️⚧️
I think it's probably more than half of us. I know I've certainly considered it, along with pretty much every member of the trans community that I have spoken to. I am sticking around right now. I want to fight, not retreat. But it does make me glad that I'm in Michigan, very close to Canada.
It’s getting worse. There’s a push at DOJ to remove access to firearms for trans folks. This, in a country where I see slung AR-15s in WalMart and Coldstone Creamery! We can only get correct ID at the federal level because of a temporary court order, and we have to agree that if we lose the case, we lose that ID. We’re losing Medicaid/Medicare supports. Our kids have lost basic medical and mental health care. Denationalization moves, all of them, with the explicit goal of making us outcasts in the USA.
I don’t blame Monica a bit. I’m working on restoring my Canadian citizenship as a Lost Canadian. Friends are preparing their own bug out kits, and we live in the “Blue” Pacific Northwest! We see the active animus in our government, and the well-funded campaigns to foment hatred. Many of us know what’s coming next, and don’t intend to cooperate.
It may be. The comments I’m seeing on the article are interesting. Some are all in favor, but conservatives who have been throughly other gun control tiffs are more concerned that such a blanket ban without the need for each individual to go through the courts to be found unfit to have access to firearms opens up a much wider path to firearms bans. They express concern such a ban could be broadened to everyone on antidepressants or charged with domestic violence.
Interesting to see some flickers of awareness that they could be next.
Most comments are the usual knee-jerk reflexes conditioned into readers there. A few are smart enough to understand the difference between an adjudicated individual ban and a blanket ban.
So far, to go by the 2A activist channels I follow, a good 80% are vehemently opposed to this. On channels that are more anti-transgender than pro-2A, 80% of the comments are vehemently opposed to this. It seems a certainty the GOP/this administration will loose 1%~6% at minimum of their prior votes if they push this. In how many jurisdictions they won, is that itself more than the margin of their victory?
Even the NRA is opposed to this. They likely learned their lesson from their screwup in California in supporting the Mulford Act, originally intended to end firearms possession by the Black Panthers, but used to limit ownership and carry for all California residents.
I’m really dismayed that anyone has to even think about leaving this country. What have we become. I Know from personal experience that have already been checking where they can move to. I AM SO DISGUSTED AND ASHAMED OF MY COUNTRY. WHEN WILL OUR REPUBLICAN POLITICIANS WAKE-UP TO THE REAL WORLD AND STOP PERSECUTING OUR CITIZENS. WE MUST VOTE THEM OUT!!!!
Hi. The flag is important, and I am troubled it's creator feels persecuted.
And speaking about the flag, I just finished a memorial painting about Club Q in Colorado Springs, which displays two of them, flying above the club (still).
The painting is on display at the Eldorado Springs Art Center in Eldorado Springs, CO.
On November 19, 2022, 5 people were killed at one of Colorado's LBGTQ nightclubs, Club Q in Colorado Springs. This painting, by Jonathan Machen, was started on location on November 21, 2024, and finished at the Eldorado Springs Art Center in August, 2025.
I have Irish citizenship through my grandfather and moved from California to Holland in June. I’ve lived and worked in several different countries before in my life, both with and without significant financial resources. In my experience, the most important challenge, especially in this era of hardening borders, is obtaining legal residency and the right to work legally. I am not an attorney nor versed in legal issues, but if anyone is seriously considering moving to Holland, I’m willing to answer questions about logistics based on my own experiences. *Message me on Facebook.(
FYI, there is an American trans woman, Veronica Clifford-Carlos, who is challenging the Dutch government in court to gain asylum on the basis of the US being an unsafe country for trans people. An activist friend in California and I separately submitted op/eds in favor of her case that were published in two different Dutch newspapers last week. Depending on how long it takes, her case could also be the first international case to rule in favor of asylum on the basis that the US is an unsafe country for trans people.
We all need to make plans for how we are going to get through this. For some of us, that does mean leaving - but unfortunately, those with the ability to leave are also usually those with the most resources that could be used in the fight.
For myself, after spending the first half of this year in a constant state of panic, I have decided that I am going to go to law school. It will be a better use of my resources than trying to flee. Maybe it's all for naught and I'll end up in the ground like everyone else, but hell, I'd rather die on my feet, arguing my truth to my last breath, than live on my knees.
I don't blame those who fleeing for taking that option. If things really hit the fan here, we will need them to carry on our legacy, to remember our struggles.
Thanks. Studying is the only thing that makes me feel a sense of control, even though I know that sense is illusory.
But in studying law, I feel like an alchemist learning a dark art - one that could be used for good, but also for evil. The tools themselves are neutral.
I don't have the stamina for the battlefield, but maybe for a courtroom. Mandela used these tools. Gandhi used these tools. Perhaps our community can benefit in the same way - but, just like Mandela and Gandhi, the courtroom alone will never be enough to liberate us.
I agree with all of this. And, while it's not enough alone, I think the courtroom plays a very important role in reducing the damage done, and buying time until the national winds change.
I've definitely given serious thought to moving. I feel relatively safe here in NV, but if that changes, I'd move to WA to be closer to my mom. And I have family in New Zealand (including a trans cousin) who've said they'd help us move.
I'll flee if I have to and have the opportunity, but I'll be damned if I'm leaving this country without putting up a fight.
As for the rest of us, less privileged and less well known, we just have to hunker down and *hide*…as the next stage in the “authoritarian playbook” progresses and they move to take our guns.
The camps are next as they, to quote a recent Congressman, “need to round us up for further study and decide what to do with us”.
iI am glad that they can leave. I was born in Canada at a US air force base but my mom was from Canada. There are provisions for me to get citizenship. My partner and I have two daughters. I can't leave them. My Trump loving sister is mad because I won't come go to Georgia to visit her. I just tell her that is in the No Travel Zone.
OTOH, I do live 5 miles from the border with Mexico. If anything serious happens, I can cross the border to Ciudad Juarez.
I wrote my most recent thoughts about the question of staying or leaving in this post today. It's not just a question of money - or safety. Both are important, of course. We also must consider where we can be effective in our lives, and in the social cause that we care deeply about.
Another trans rights veteran joins the American trans diaspora. By my count, within my tight circle, if it's not most of us, it's at least a large percentage. I wish Monica well in her new life, wherever she ends up. I would love to cross paths with her again.
I am glad Monica and her wife are able to leave! I have seriously thought of uprooting my life to Canada, but have decided to stay and fight. If and when we make it through this tyranny, each of us will have major testimony. We just have to live to tell our tales. 🙏🏳️⚧️
I seriously thought of moving to Montreal…until Zohran Mamdani won the primary. I live in NYC, and now I want to stay for sure!
It brings me hope to hear this! Thank you for sharing.
I’m happy I can help in some way!
I think it's probably more than half of us. I know I've certainly considered it, along with pretty much every member of the trans community that I have spoken to. I am sticking around right now. I want to fight, not retreat. But it does make me glad that I'm in Michigan, very close to Canada.
Well-put, I feel similarly up in WA.
I’m also in Michigan and feel that, too.
I'm in Michigan too, I'm headed to Oregon for the winter whether I come back is the real question.
It’s getting worse. There’s a push at DOJ to remove access to firearms for trans folks. This, in a country where I see slung AR-15s in WalMart and Coldstone Creamery! We can only get correct ID at the federal level because of a temporary court order, and we have to agree that if we lose the case, we lose that ID. We’re losing Medicaid/Medicare supports. Our kids have lost basic medical and mental health care. Denationalization moves, all of them, with the explicit goal of making us outcasts in the USA.
I don’t blame Monica a bit. I’m working on restoring my Canadian citizenship as a Lost Canadian. Friends are preparing their own bug out kits, and we live in the “Blue” Pacific Northwest! We see the active animus in our government, and the well-funded campaigns to foment hatred. Many of us know what’s coming next, and don’t intend to cooperate.
"There’s a push at DOJ to remove access to firearms for trans folks."
And isn't that a bright "do not cross" line ?!
It may be. The comments I’m seeing on the article are interesting. Some are all in favor, but conservatives who have been throughly other gun control tiffs are more concerned that such a blanket ban without the need for each individual to go through the courts to be found unfit to have access to firearms opens up a much wider path to firearms bans. They express concern such a ban could be broadened to everyone on antidepressants or charged with domestic violence.
Interesting to see some flickers of awareness that they could be next.
I think it's trying to get dems on record supporting transgender and gun rights 🤔
I haven't seen them do either 🙅♀️
It could be, but seems to in line with their other anti-transgender efforts to be so.
Could you please post a link to the exact article you refer to please?
Ok.
NOT RECOMMENDED FOR ANYONE’S MENTAL WELL-BEING!
https://www.breitbart.com/t/assets/html/disqus-68.html?udca=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fpolitics%2F2025%2F09%2F04%2Fjustice-department-considering-pushing-ban-transgendered-people-owning-firearms%2F%7C30883134%7CJustice%20Department%20Considering%20Ban%20on%20Transgendered%20People%20Owning%20Firearms%7C
Most comments are the usual knee-jerk reflexes conditioned into readers there. A few are smart enough to understand the difference between an adjudicated individual ban and a blanket ban.
Lately, on transgender matters, my secret is the same as Bruce Banner's -- I'm always angry. It will not affect my mental health a bit . . .
Um, didn't Bruce Banner try to avoid getting angry? Or are you channeling the result of that anger to apply it to present days?
So far, to go by the 2A activist channels I follow, a good 80% are vehemently opposed to this. On channels that are more anti-transgender than pro-2A, 80% of the comments are vehemently opposed to this. It seems a certainty the GOP/this administration will loose 1%~6% at minimum of their prior votes if they push this. In how many jurisdictions they won, is that itself more than the margin of their victory?
Even the NRA is opposed to this. They likely learned their lesson from their screwup in California in supporting the Mulford Act, originally intended to end firearms possession by the Black Panthers, but used to limit ownership and carry for all California residents.
They want my firearms?
Okay.
𝘚𝘶𝘳𝘦.
They can have the 𝘣𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘴 first.
I saw that report.
I’m really dismayed that anyone has to even think about leaving this country. What have we become. I Know from personal experience that have already been checking where they can move to. I AM SO DISGUSTED AND ASHAMED OF MY COUNTRY. WHEN WILL OUR REPUBLICAN POLITICIANS WAKE-UP TO THE REAL WORLD AND STOP PERSECUTING OUR CITIZENS. WE MUST VOTE THEM OUT!!!!
I too have fled the U.S. I saw the handwriting on the wall. I now live in Bonaire.
Good choice! Ironically you have not fled to Lichtenstein. 😉
Hi. The flag is important, and I am troubled it's creator feels persecuted.
And speaking about the flag, I just finished a memorial painting about Club Q in Colorado Springs, which displays two of them, flying above the club (still).
The painting is on display at the Eldorado Springs Art Center in Eldorado Springs, CO.
https://youtu.be/XX-yee30Zjk
On November 19, 2022, 5 people were killed at one of Colorado's LBGTQ nightclubs, Club Q in Colorado Springs. This painting, by Jonathan Machen, was started on location on November 21, 2024, and finished at the Eldorado Springs Art Center in August, 2025.
In Memoriam:
Daniel Davis Aston, 28
Kelly Loving, 40
Ashley Paugh, 35
Derrick Rump, 38
Raymond Green Vance, 22
I have Irish citizenship through my grandfather and moved from California to Holland in June. I’ve lived and worked in several different countries before in my life, both with and without significant financial resources. In my experience, the most important challenge, especially in this era of hardening borders, is obtaining legal residency and the right to work legally. I am not an attorney nor versed in legal issues, but if anyone is seriously considering moving to Holland, I’m willing to answer questions about logistics based on my own experiences. *Message me on Facebook.(
FYI, there is an American trans woman, Veronica Clifford-Carlos, who is challenging the Dutch government in court to gain asylum on the basis of the US being an unsafe country for trans people. An activist friend in California and I separately submitted op/eds in favor of her case that were published in two different Dutch newspapers last week. Depending on how long it takes, her case could also be the first international case to rule in favor of asylum on the basis that the US is an unsafe country for trans people.
We all need to make plans for how we are going to get through this. For some of us, that does mean leaving - but unfortunately, those with the ability to leave are also usually those with the most resources that could be used in the fight.
For myself, after spending the first half of this year in a constant state of panic, I have decided that I am going to go to law school. It will be a better use of my resources than trying to flee. Maybe it's all for naught and I'll end up in the ground like everyone else, but hell, I'd rather die on my feet, arguing my truth to my last breath, than live on my knees.
I don't blame those who fleeing for taking that option. If things really hit the fan here, we will need them to carry on our legacy, to remember our struggles.
God help us.
Best wishes to you in law school, that's awesome!
Thanks. Studying is the only thing that makes me feel a sense of control, even though I know that sense is illusory.
But in studying law, I feel like an alchemist learning a dark art - one that could be used for good, but also for evil. The tools themselves are neutral.
I don't have the stamina for the battlefield, but maybe for a courtroom. Mandela used these tools. Gandhi used these tools. Perhaps our community can benefit in the same way - but, just like Mandela and Gandhi, the courtroom alone will never be enough to liberate us.
I agree with all of this. And, while it's not enough alone, I think the courtroom plays a very important role in reducing the damage done, and buying time until the national winds change.
I've definitely given serious thought to moving. I feel relatively safe here in NV, but if that changes, I'd move to WA to be closer to my mom. And I have family in New Zealand (including a trans cousin) who've said they'd help us move.
I'll flee if I have to and have the opportunity, but I'll be damned if I'm leaving this country without putting up a fight.
I am a transgender woman
As for the rest of us, less privileged and less well known, we just have to hunker down and *hide*…as the next stage in the “authoritarian playbook” progresses and they move to take our guns.
The camps are next as they, to quote a recent Congressman, “need to round us up for further study and decide what to do with us”.
Put your heads in the sand if you want to…
This is happening.
iI am glad that they can leave. I was born in Canada at a US air force base but my mom was from Canada. There are provisions for me to get citizenship. My partner and I have two daughters. I can't leave them. My Trump loving sister is mad because I won't come go to Georgia to visit her. I just tell her that is in the No Travel Zone.
OTOH, I do live 5 miles from the border with Mexico. If anything serious happens, I can cross the border to Ciudad Juarez.
I wrote my most recent thoughts about the question of staying or leaving in this post today. It's not just a question of money - or safety. Both are important, of course. We also must consider where we can be effective in our lives, and in the social cause that we care deeply about.
https://jaynasheats.substack.com/p/resistance-is-not-futile
That will give me more to think about at the weekly protests where I hold the trans flag.
Another trans rights veteran joins the American trans diaspora. By my count, within my tight circle, if it's not most of us, it's at least a large percentage. I wish Monica well in her new life, wherever she ends up. I would love to cross paths with her again.
If I only had the fucking money.