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Who Will Stay and Who Will Flee: Current Threats to Trans & Nonbinary Folks… or, Is It Time to Move to Canada?
Originally delivered as a sermon for Temple B’nai Israel of Little Rock, Arkansas, on Friday, 20 June, 2025
The morning after Trump’s second election, I texted a friend, “How are you holding up?” Their immediate reply: “The American experiment is over. I hope you have your passport ready.” I typed, “I appreciate the sentiment, but I’m not in the same emotional place.” Internally, I thought: Are you kidding me? I’m Jewish: we’ve been “standing up to tyrants since Pharaoh. We’ve faced Amalek, and the Babylonians, and the Romans, and Hitler. We got this…
In so many ways, LGBTQ+ advocacy groups in the US share that resilient outlook. In response to the slew of anti-queer Executive Orders since Trump took office this term, the Human Rights Campaign reassures, quote “[… W]hile these orders generate a ton of headlines, confusion, and chaos, they cannot override the United States Constitution, federal laws, and established legal precedent.”
All true. And yet. These Executive Orders — along with the growing number of proposed and adopted pieces of anti-queer, and especially anti-trans, legislation at State and local levels — can and do have real consequences.
