In the 24 hours after President Donald Trump's election victory, Rainbow Railroad, a charity that supports queer and transgender people fleeing persecution, saw more requests for relocation support on a single day from a single country than ever before in the charity’s 19-year history.
On that day, more than 1,100 LGBTQ people in the U.S. asked the charity for help to escape to Canada and other nations.
It was “unprecedented,” said Swathi Sekhar, the charity’s director of protection initiatives.
Requests last November eclipsed Rainbow Railroad's previous record of 119 requests from an individual country in a single day. The previous record was set by Afghans on Aug. 30, 2021 — the day the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan.
For many years, the United States was one of the countries the charity helped persecuted LGBTQ people to seek refuge in. Now, it’s a nation many queer and transgender people are looking for help to escape from.
Still, Sekhar said the surge in interest to get out of the U.S. wasn’t altogether surprising.
In the month Trump has been in office, the president has issued executive orders seeking to bar transgender Americans from the military, move transgender women into men’s prisons and defund access to gender-affirming medical care for trans youth.
Since Inauguration Day, the U.S. government has also stopped issuing passports with the “X” gender marker and has said it will not honour requests from transgender people to change a passport gender marker between “F” and “M.”
Of the individuals who requested Rainbow Railroad’s help the day after Trump’s election, 51 per cent are transgender, 35 per cent are trans women and about 15 per cent are trans men.
“[It’s] distressing to see how people are so terrified and desperate,” said Sekhar. “People are feeling as though the U.S. is not a place where they can safely express their identity.”
Seeking greater freedom, many are looking to Canada and other countries for help.
Transgender Americans seek asylum in Canada
Rainbow Railroad isn’t the only organization seeing a spike in LGBTQ Americans seeking to move to Canada.
In recent weeks, Toronto LGBTQ immigration lawyer Adrienne Smith’s firm has received about ten emails or calls per day from LGBTQ Americans looking to come to Canada — a dramatic increase from pre-Inauguration levels, she said.
Smith said it’s common for queer and transgender Americans to explore a move to Canada. Prior to Trump’s election, however, Americans typically were looking for a job or to join a Canadian spouse.
Now an increasing number have or are considering trying to claim asylum on the grounds they are unsafe to remain in the U.S.
Smith said the major concerns she hears from prospective clients are about an increased risk of physical violence and about accessing both gender-aligned government identification and gender-affirming care.
A study by UCLA’s School of Law found transgender people in the U.S. are over four times more likely than cisgender people to be a victim of a violent crime, including rape and sexual assault.
Sekhar noted that transgender refugees and migrants in the U.S. are particularly vulnerable as they’re facing both an increase in anti-trans and anti-immigrant sentiment.
Can transgender Americans get asylum in Canada?
Smith said within the past two or three weeks, she’s received inquiries from several Americans who have said they’ve submitted asylum claims and are requesting her support with legal representation.
The Toronto lawyer said she’s had some internal turmoil over how to proceed — but ultimately Smith said she’s declined to represent these Americans on their asylum claims, believing the likelihood of success is currently low.
In order to be eligible for asylum in Canada, individuals must demonstrate a “well-founded fear of persecution” in their home country. For transgender Americans, this is now very possible, said Smith.
However, claimants also must also be able to demonstrate that there is no other “internal flight” option — that they’d still face those same well-founded fears everywhere nationwide.
“Having to prove they would face that persecution if they relocated to California or New York — that’s where I’m getting stopped,” she said.
Rainbow Railroad’s director of communications, Timothy Chan, said the organization also does not currently support American asylum applications to Canada given these existing barriers.
When people in America reach out to the charity for support, the organization provides referrals to partner organizations, Sekhar said.
Immigration reduction limits options
However Toronto LGBTQ immigration lawyer Nicholas Woodward said as U.S. federal policies become more restrictive for queer and transgender people, the case for claiming asylum in Canada gets stronger.
For the time being, he said the best options for Americans looking to move to Canada are likely the most commonly-used existing pathways, including employment, study and family routes.
The timing is tough, however, he added.
In 2024, the Canadian federal government laid out a new plan to gradually reduce the country’s population through several measures, including by reducing the number of foreign students.
These policy changes have narrowed the likelihood of immigration success for would-be newcomers — LGBTQ or not.
“Unfortunately, a lot of these people don’t have a lot of options to come here,” he said.
