Trans Refugees Flee Red States With The Help of TikTok

Trans people in red states are fleeing with the help of crowdfunding on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram after Republicans spent a staggering $215 million alone in anti-trans television advertisements on the campaign trail. Even though polling showed that voters don’t think that limiting trans rights is an important issue in this past election, research shows that anti-trans ads increase animosity towards trans people.

Iris, a 20-year-old Black trans woman living in Texas, posted a two-minute video on TikTok a week after Donald Trump was reelected president. She hasn’t changed her legal name or gender marker, nor has she been able to access gender-affirming care. In Texas, it is no longer legal for trans people to correct the gender marker on their birth certificates or state IDs. Iris posted a link to help her fundraise money to leave the increasingly hostile landscape of her home state. 

“I can’t live here as long as that’s a danger for me,” she says in the video. “I feel like my life has just started, and I can’t let it end before I get to do anything.”

Shortly after Iris posted her TikTok, she raised over $34,000, more than tripling her initial goal of $10,000. She posted another video letting her viewers know she now had the means to start a new life elsewhere. She is thinking about relocating to California because of its strong protections for LGBTQ+ people, she told Wired magazine.

Iris isn’t the only trans American turning to social media to crowdfund money to escape draconian laws in red states that limit transgender people’s access to healthcare, public bathroom access, and name and gender document changes. Mutual aid funds like transanta, started in 2020 by Indya Moore, Kyle Lasky, and Chase Strangio, allow users to donate anonymously to trans youth people in need, whom users can directly and anonymously donate to.

Denver-based nonprofit Trans Continental Pipeline Colorado helps LGBTQ+ people relocate to the Rocky Mountain State by offering financial assistance, transportation, and resources for local housing. “Most of the people reaching out (to us) just don’t have the ability to move across the country,” says Keira Richards, executive director of TCP.

TCP is compiling resources outside of Colorado that are accessible on social. TCP provides temporary housing for at least a month for people to get on their feet. “Really, it’s (about) leaning on your community,” Richards says. “If you can build a strong community and get mutual aid networks going, then you will be in a much better position than anybody isolated in a red state.”