A transgender woman trying to flee the UK says she has faced attacks from almost every government and public organisations with whom she has come into contact.

As with many trans people in the UK, Alexis Solia has watched with dread as institutions across the country have grown more transphobic. Over the past few years, she tells PinkNews, her situation has grown steadily worse and she has been subjected to discrimination from members of the public, the police, the NHS and the government.

Things came to a head after last month’s UK Supreme Court ruling on the legal definitions of “woman” and “sex” in the 2010 Equality Act, which has unleashed a fresh wave of transphobic rhetoric from politicians and institutions. Enough was enough for Alexis, she had to get out.

“It’s just too much,” she says. “We’re never given any room to breathe, no matter where you are in society… in the corporate world or in an industry or just out in society. You’re punished because of, what, existing?”

Supreme Court ruling has been ‘devastating’

The Supreme Court dictated that the Equality Act’s definition of a woman excluded trans women, and defined “sex” as relating to “biological sex”.

Prime minister Keir Starmer welcomed the verdict and the Equality and Human Rights Commission issued stinging guidance and who can – and can’t – use public facilities such as toilets.

With the growing fear that trans people could be banned from accessing single-sex spaces, Alexis says she made the decision to flee to Thailand, to escape “persecution” as a trans woman of colour, which, she claims, has had a “devastating” impact on her mental health. She has created a GoFundMe to help fund her travel.

“Sure, it’s a country where they still don’t count trans women as women but there’s not this pushback on us in society. It’s more of an altruistic attitude in terms of how they view [one another], she says. “They have genuine respect for most people… I just want to be in a country where I’m not going to be arrested or interrogated for who I am.”

According to the community-based LGBTQ+ rights index, Equaldex, Thailand is ranked 29th in terms of LGBTQ+ equality. While there are laws protecting trans people from discrimination, and gender-affirming care is accessible, changing legal gender on official documents is not allowed in the southeast Asian country and conversion therapy has not been outlawed.

The UK is ranked one place below Thailand for LGBTQ+ equality, and behind the likes of Mexico, Australia, Colombia, Brazil and Canada.

“It feels like this country is almost a test of how much injustice can we give you until you break,” Alexis says. “There’s this combination of rising anti-immigration, rising racism, and wave of fascism.”

It’s not just her gender identity that has caused Alexis distress, but her skin colour too. She says she has been confronted by police on a number of occasions, including during an alleged assault in London.

“This was about three years ago,” she says. “This man tried to attack me. My friend, who is a white trans woman, protected me and fought back. She broke her nails, she was covered in blood. When the police came, they didn’t ask her much and instead confronted me.

“My friend was like: ‘Now why is that?’ And it’s because I’m a mixed-race trans woman. It felt very wrong.”

‘I just don’t trust the UK anymore. I’ve lost trust’

One of the biggest sources of stress for Alexis right now is the ongoing battle with her GP, after her hormone prescription was cancelled with almost no warning.

Similar incidents have been reported across the country, with several GPs in England and Wales saying that a “lack of support”, and “expertise” issues, have prompted them to end hormone replacement therapy prescriptions for trans people.

Alexis says she received a notice from her GP informing her that the repeat prescription had been stopped after claims that she hadn’t kept up with her blood tests. However, she insists that she had not been offered any blood-test appointments.

“It was just a breakdown in communication,” she says. “They didn’t even contact any specialist clinic, not in Nottingham, not in London, they didn’t contact anyone. They didn’t make any effort with the shared-care agreement.”

Shared-care agreements are vital for trans people in the UK who want to access hormones through gender identity clinics (GICs). GPs work with the specialist units to prescribe medication, with the GIC providing specialist care and advice to the doctor.

The idea that GPs are unable to provide medication because of expertise concerns have been countered by some experts.

“It’s been so stressful,” Alexis goes on to say. “What we’re experiencing with the prime minister saying trans women aren’t women and with the Supreme Court… I just think: why am I even here, why am I in this country?

“I hate the way we are so passive-aggressive in this country. I hate the way the government is so passive-aggressive when they attack us. They’re gaslighting people and saying it’s not going to affect us. I just don’t trust the UK [government] anymore. I’ve lost trust.”

Those fears echo what PinkNews has heard from Dutch charity Trans Rescue who have said they have received a rising number of requests from trans people wanting help to leave the UK.

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