These families say they’re leaving the U.S. because of its anti-transgender climate

“School’s ending next week, and then everything kind of gets real,” she said, adding that the entire family feels a mix of excitement and sadness about having to start saying goodbye to their lives in the United States.

They estimated that the total cost of moving their family — which also includes Chase’s older brother, a 90-pound dog and two cats — will be $65,000 to $80,000. That total includes one-way plane tickets for the family of four ($6,000); relocation services for their three pets, if they can afford to take all of them ($25,000); visa applications ($3,000); lawyer fees ($2,000); and required medical tests for the move that aren’t covered by insurance. 

Candace organized a GoFundMe fundraiser with a goal of $50,000, in part because, she said, she felt bad asking for anything more. The money will go toward the expenses they’ve paid with their savings so far and to whatever they need when they arrive with only their clothing, sentimental items and ski gear. They’ve raised just over $6,500 and have already taken money out of one of their 401(k) retirement plans to cover some moving costs.  

A pre-emptive departure

The Jackson family of Missouri left more than a year before the 2024 election. Debi Jackson’s child Avery, who uses they/them pronouns and is about to turn 18, became a prominent face in trans advocacy after they were featured on the cover of National Geographic in January 2017, when they were 9 years old. 

The family lived in Kansas City for 15 years and often traveled to the State Capitol to testify against legislation targeting trans people. She said that after a series of difficult events — the Supreme Court’s overturning Roe v. Wade; a shooting at a school in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 people; and Missouri’s enacting a ban on gender-affirming care for minors — her kids asked her why they were still in the United States. 

“In that moment, I realized they were just saying they wanted out completely,” Jackson said. “A big part of it was their fear over the escalation of violence that we could all tell was going to come, because for years they had been listening to the language about trans people become more and more dehumanizing and become more and more violent in the way it was presented.” 

Jackson said she also knew trans issues would be important for Republicans in the 2024 election, and she feared that photos of Avery — which she said prominent right-wing figures in Brazil, France and Poland were already using in speeches and online — could be featured in Republican attack ads.  

She said she also knew the family couldn’t afford to move to another state first and then leave the country if Trump won. 

Just a few months later, in September 2023, Jackson packed up her family and moved them to a country in the European Union, which for safety reasons she declined to name. She said it took her two months to raise $15,000 online to pay to transport their four dogs to Europe and for an initial deposit to rent a home. 

Jackson does consulting and freelance writing remotely and was able to get a digital nomad visa, which in some countries can provide permanent residency. Now settled in her new home, Jackson said she spends time each day answering some of the hundreds of direct messages she gets on social media from parents with trans children who want to move either to other states or out of the country entirely. 

Jackson said many Americans don’t know, for example, that they can’t move to other countries, particularly in Europe, and apply for asylum because of their or their children’s trans status. No countries that provide asylum to LGBTQ people because of fears of persecution accept U.S. citizens through those programs. When people are denied asylum by one of the more than two dozen member countries in the European Union, they are also banned from re-entering all other countries in the E.U. except Ireland and Switzerland for two years if they are from what are considered “safe countries.” 

“I spend a lot of time researching and replying to people,” Jackson said. “That’s really the way that I deal with stress and trauma, is by trying to actually be proactive rather than reactive.”