Barbara Fowler has a bag in his car trunk. It contains her family documents, burner phones, clothing, medicines and address of a house in Canada – ready if her family should escape from her country.
Fowler lives in the United States.
Her daughter is one of 1.6 million American citizens identifying as a transgender person – one of whom is five aged 13 to 17 According to the Williams Institute Think-Tank at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Donald Trump’s reunion as president filled Fowler with extraordinary anxiety.
“I cry and rage and carry so much fear for my family,” said Fowler, who asked CBC News not to use his real name, location or name of his daughter. “I don’t know with this administration what will happen.”
Fowler, like many parents of transgender children to the United States, strengthened after Trump took his duty a few weeks ago. In his speech speech, the President said: “From today, there will be an official policy of the United States Government that there are only two sexes: male and female.”
The statement makes illegal transgender Americans mark X on his passports and other documentation. The marker is pre-allowed to people who identify themselves as non-bonical, interseks, transgender or gender that does not reconcile while their documents pass through the update procedure to reflect their confirmed sexes.
In a series of executive orders signed in its first days as president, Trump also stopped health care f
“My daughter is beautiful, she has great friends, she plays a clarinet, she’s so happy,” Fowler said. “And now we are in a limb, because we do not know if she will be able to continue to get medical care she needs to transition or use a bathroom at her school where she feels comfortable.”
Fowler says her daughter came out to her and her husband at the age of 11, telling them that she had never felt comfortable in her body. Fowler admits that she initially struggled with the revelation and she cried for months, knowing that the path ahead would be difficult for us. But not supporting it was never an option.
“We always told her that if she changed her mind, we would understand,” Fowler said. “But she never waved. She just knew who was deep inside, and we were.”
The Midwest Town clinic where Fowler’s daughter gets care currently decides how and whether he will continue to act after the Government’s financing has withdrawn. In the meantime, Fowler identified a clinic in Canada who could treat her daughter if he happened.
Fowler is not the only American parent of a trans child who was thinking about moving to Canada.
Canadian law firm gets a dozen calls a day
Joycna Kang, an immigration lawyer in Toronto, says she has sent dozens of calls translations of trans Americans asking how they asked how they could move here.
“Most of them are afraid, wondering if they can look for asylum here,” Kang said. “Usually these claims were difficult, because what you have to prove is that the state does not want or cannot protect you and that in your country you can go anywhere else and live safely. Now, with those changes that were that were There is also these commands that have been uploaded, I think we see a much clearer picture [U.S.] The state is a persecution agent. “
A year and a half ago, Kelli, who also requested that CBC did not use her last name, moved her six Florida family in Minnesot because of the concern for the safety of her 22-year-old Trans-Sina, Ollie. After settling in her new community, she is now afraid that she will have to move again, this time from the country, and viewed in Canada as a possibility.
“It’s traumatized to be rooted of everything you knew,” Kelli said. “The kids befriended. They got into their activities. They continue, so the night is in the election, my 11-year-old, Sweet Kiddo, starts crying and she is like,” Does that mean to me “I’ll have to move again? “”
Kelli and Ollie are community activists, both have committed to improves the life of members of the LGBTQ community in which they live. Kelli says that if her son cannot receive medicines for hormone therapy he needs, she would not hesitate to move her family again. The fact that she even thinks of moving again shocked even to her.
“How are the United States?” Kelli asked. “My words come out of my mouth and in my head I am like that, it can’t be real, it can’t be okay. It’s so bizarre … The most powerful country in the world and its citizens are looking for asylum to other countries.
Stuck in a pupil of passports
Americans who already live in Canada have also been affected by the president’s commands to the Trans Community. Those who live here who do not yet have their confirmed gender on the passport are afraid that the border crossing could be a problem.
Elliot Duvall is a trans man of Arkansas who currently lives in London, on. He moved here in 2016 to marry his wife. He was not at home to see his family for more than five years, because his passport continues to cite his gender as a female, although he represents and lives as a male.
“To hand over your passport to the border guards is scary,” Duvall said. “I would be terrified to get into a secondary test and I would have to get into an immigration area, although I’m still a citizen of the US, and they’ll just question me to bone. And I don’t think I could handle myself mentally with Tim, to be honest.
Duvall has brothers and sisters he has not seen for years. He missed his brother’s wedding and the birth of several nephews and nephews for fear of crossing the border.
His mother is sick now, but she is too afraid that Duvall comes to visit her.
“My mom, he wants me to come desperately,” he said. “We tried to do it for Christmas, all of us. And she said, ‘It’s not coming. “And that’s hard.
Kang says people like Duvall have reason to worry.
“When we talk about Canadians with the X Marker on their passport trying to move to the US, we don’t really know what it will look like,” she said. “We do not know if it merely means increased control on the border or means to deny the entry or potential seizure of these documents.”
Duvall is also afraid of driving through some countries where his bathroom accounts would be illegal to use a male public restroom.
“If I used the Bathroom in Arkansas and there was a minor – so anyone under the age of 16 – at the same time, then I could be arrested, placed in a 30 -day prison, fined $ 1500 and then ‘D’ must be registered as a sex offender for the rest of his life. “
Duvall simply not willing to take that risk.
Fowler and Kelli are also waiting to see that Trump’s executive commands will directly affect their lives. They both say they will stay in the US as long as their children receive the health care they need and are not in danger.
“At the end of the day, you just want your child to be happy and healthy,” Fowler said. “That’s what every parent wants, and we’re not different.”
