Fight Or Flight

Families are making tough decisions.

In states that are losing their minds over trans people, many families are fleeing to sanctuary states, while others are preparing to fight City Hall.

Transgender Arkansans and their families weigh moving or staying in the face of restrictions.

Transgender Arkansans and their families weigh moving or staying in the face of restrictions

Families look at states with laws protecting gender-affirming medical care after Arkansas ban reinstated

Arkansas Advocate

By: Tess Vrbin

June 9, 2026

Key points

• Arkansas in 2021 became the first state to enact a ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth. The law also prohibits Arkansas doctors from referring minors elsewhere for such care.  
• The ban, Act 626, was struck down by a federal judge in 2023 who had blocked its enforcement two years earlier. The ban was reinstated by federal appeals judges last year after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a similar Tennessee law.
• The Williams Institute says nearly half of transgender adults have moved or considered moving from states with laws targeting them.

Sabrina Jennen’s family has deep roots in Arkansas, but she said moving to Maryland three years ago brought them a sense of safety they didn’t have in the Natural State.

I have even looked into fleeing to Canada

State and national trends

Nearly half of transgender adults in the United States have moved or considered moving from states with laws targeting them to states with safer legal and social environments, according to a survey last year from the Williams Institute, a research center on gender identity and sexual orientation at the UCLA College of Law.

“For those transgender people who do pursue relocating, service providers, businesses, and state and local governments should both consider the costs of losing members of their communities and support and welcome those who are making new homes,” the Williams Institute states.

I just don't understand how they can lie, and even worse, how people sit back and let it happen!

‘No other option’: inside the refugee camp for trans Americans fleeing Trump

Fear, abuse and eroding rights have forced many trans people to leave the US – can they claim asylum in the Netherlands?

The Guardian

Helen Pidd and Eli Block

Mon 19 Jan 2026

Ter Apel, a small, unassuming Dutch town near the German border, is a place tourists rarely have on their itinerary. There are no lovely old windmills, no cannabis-filled coffee shops and on a recent visit it was far too early for tulip season.

When foreigners end up there, it is for one reason: to claim asylum at the Netherlands’ biggest refugee camp, home to 2,000 desperate people from all around the world.

Some, like the Eritreans and Somalis, are fleeing war; the Syrians insist it remains unsafe for them to return home after the fall of Assad. But in the last year they have been joined by a curious new cohort: a bunch of Americans, who say they have feared for their lives ever since Donald Trump returned to the White House.

Their presence has surprised many of the camp’s residents. “My dream is to go to America or the UK. America for me is the paradise,” said Usama, a 21-year-old Libyan-Algerian hanging around the main gate. “You can work, you can make a million if you have a good idea. Why they come here?”

It is a fair question. Last year, 76 Americans claimed asylum in the Netherlands, according to the Dutch asylum and immigration ministry, up from nine in 2024. Unlike the UK, the Netherlands does not rent out hotels or houses for asylum seekers, instead housing them in fenced-off camps, officially called reception centres, dotted around the country.

What does it say about the United States that people are fleeing it, and worst still people are cheering them leaving!