
“The anti-trans rhetoric and violence against me and others in our community have escalated since the election,” Ash Lazarus Orr (he/they) told LGBTQ Nation. “I’ve dealt with a stalker, death threats, physical and verbal assaults, including at the state capitol.”
He doesn’t want to leave their home state of West Virginia, but he doesn’t feel like he has a choice. Orr, an organizer and activist who works for Advocates for Trans Equality, is trans. He has witnessed the place he grew up become increasingly hostile to trans people like them, and with the election of Donald Trump, feels like he no longer has a choice.
“We’ve been living under a total abortion ban since 2022. In 2023, a ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth was enacted. In 2024, we witnessed a record number of anti-trans bills introduced, including measures that would strip legal recognition from trans West Virginians, criminalize the public existence of trans people, and promote book bans,” Orr said in an interview conducted before Trump’s inauguration.
Orr noted that due to community activism and supportive politicians, many of the worst bills were defeated. Still, some of these bills passed, and Orr expects it will only get worse. “As we enter this legislative session, we’re bracing for another record year, with even more anti-trans bills likely to pass, including bans on adult gender-affirming care, bathroom and ID restrictions, and other harmful legislation.”
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The bigoted legislation being proposed corresponds with Orr’s own experiences. “Due to the ongoing harassment I’ve faced as an openly trans person and organizer in West Virginia, my spouse and I are leaving my home state for my safety.”
Orr said that he and his partner have also updated all their federal documents, and he is awaiting the last hearing for his name change.
“Leaving my beautiful home state under these circumstances is heartbreaking, but I have to prioritize the safety of myself and my family.”

Trans rights took an immediate turn for the worst with Trump’s inauguration
“As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female,” President Donald Trump stated in his inaugural address last week. With that declaration, a new era for transgender people’s rights in this country had begun.
Last week, Trump signed an executive order that says that there are only two biological sexes, effectively erasing transgender and nonbinary people from the legal system. This week, he announced that transgender people are banned from serving in the military.
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These changes come on the heels of the Trump campaign spending over $215 million for ads that vilify and dehumanize trans people, a population that only makes up about 1% of the population. Over half of the states ban gender-affirming care for trans youth. Speaker Mike Johnson’s top legislative priority is a bill that says that “for the purposes of determining compliance of Title IX, sex shall be recognized only on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth,” and it is increasingly clear Republicans are making good on their promises to rollback LGBTQ+ rights, and target trans people specifically.
Tragically, this kind of reactionary politics and scapegoating of transgender Americans is nothing new. But with a second Trump presidency, a Republican-held congress, and the Supreme Court stacked with a corrupt and deeply conservative majority, the situation for LGBTQ+ people, particularly trans people, is dire.
In the wake of this political moment, trans Americans like Orr are making preparations for survival.
Worried about the worst, people are getting paperwork in order
Imogene, a 24-year old middle school educator originally from Pennsylvania who moved to Massachusetts for college, told LGBTQ Nation in an interview conducted before Trump’s inauguration that “there’s a chance that this [Trump’s second term] is going to become like a Nazi Germany situation, and trans people are going to be put in camps.”

Imogene, who asked that her real first name and last name not be used in this article, says she doesn’t think it’s going to come to that. More likely, she says, “Trump and other Republicans are just going to make it really hard for trans people to live regular lives.”
After the election, Imogene updated her federal documents, which included getting a passport and amending the gender marker on her birth certificate, something she didn’t feel the need to do before. So even though the State Department has stopped renewing passports with changed gender markers, Imogene is set for 10 years.
“I didn’t feel a lot of urgency to get a passport until the election, and I don’t really use my [birth] certificate often enough where I felt like I had to change that. And the process was kind of difficult in Pennsylvania to get your birth certificate changed, so I had kind of put it off and changed the rest of my documents,” Imogene said.
“But once this election happened, I made sure to send in the request to have my birth certificate changed and send in the request to have my passport changed, to make sure my gender on those documents gets changed before that may be disallowed by the incoming government.”
She has also started stockpiling estrogen, just in case.
Orr also works as the press relations manager at Advocates for Trans Equality, an organization that fights for equal rights for transgender people. Speaking on behalf of the organization, Orr recommends that trans people update their legal documents, as he and Imogene have done, and make sure they have secured healthcare access as much as possible.
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“Given the potential for restrictions on gender-affirming care, we encourage folks to speak with their healthcare providers to discuss and plan for possible changes in access to necessary treatments.” Orr said. They also noted that many providers, such as Planned Parenthood, have developed strategies to work around these restrictions, such as providing or advising access to care in states with more supportive policies or advocating against discriminatory policies.
He also said that being in community with other queer and trans people is crucial, recommending that trans people “strengthen connections with your local LGBTQ+-led organizations, community members, and allies to create a support network and mutual aid movements. Community support and mutual aid groups are crucial when it comes to navigating potential challenges and advocating for rights and protection of marginalized communities.”
The organization also has a comprehensive trans legal survival guide, advising trans people on various ways they can legally protect themselves.
Independent journalist Erin Reed has listed Florida and Texas as “do not travel” states due to laws that call for either the arrest or bounty of trans people using bathrooms different than those assigned to their gender at birth. This is something Imogene has thought about.
“I would not choose, in a vacuum, to travel to most of the South, a lot of the Midwest.”
Imogene said she’s lucky to have moved to a blue state like Massachusetts before she came out and plans on staying or only relocating to a state that has laws like Massachusetts, which protect trans people from discrimination and harassment.
Orr and Imogene are not alone. Trans people across the country are updating their identity documents, as recommended by advocacy organizations, reports NBC News. Other trans people, or parents of trans children, are also leaving to move places less hostile to trans people.
A Trevor Project/Movement Advancement Project study this week found that 266,000 LGBTQ+ people ages 13 to 24 had relocated to more inclusive parts of the country.
Some queer people are even taking matters into their own hands, joining gun groups and purchasing firearms.
Sydney Duncan, senior counsel to Advocate for Trans Equality, pointed out how much harder it will be for trans people to get healthcare under a second Trump administration.
“Our opponents say that [trans health care] is drive-through medicine and that it’s easy to access and easy to get. But the reality is, it’s not. It’s sometimes expensive. It’s cost-prohibitive to a lot of families—and a lot of families who rely on resources provided through the government to get these kinds of things,” said Duncan in an interview with LGBTQ Nation earlier this month.

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Trans people need allies to speak out
When asked that political and social support they feel trans people need, Imogene said that it’s time to for cisgender people to step up.
“Certainly what the election of Trump has done is reinforce in the wider public’s mind that it’s okay to hate trans people, and it’s okay to commit violence against trans people, and it’s okay to treat them as second class citizens,” Imogene said.
“We need cis people to stand up for us, because it’s not always safe for trans people to stand up for themselves. So whether that means protecting us when someone is threatening us physically on the subway or when someone is refusing to use the correct pronouns in a coffee shop, we are vulnerable right now, and we need a lot of help from our community.”

Orr emphasized their desire to be recognized as himself and as a person worthy of respect.
“We want anti-trans politicians and their allies to understand that trans people are not the enemy. We are your friends, neighbors, and family members. We work in your schools, hospitals, and businesses, and we organize and volunteer in our communities. Like everyone else, we simply want to live our lives with freedom, dignity, and respect.”
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