i’m finally graduating from high school soon :D oh my god i’m so glad that i’m leaving this shithole behind. anyways hopefully i’ll be studying abroad this or next year. i want to transition where i live but surprise surprise “where i live” isn’t really nice towards queer people.
should i include that i’m seeking asylum to transition? i feel like its a bit too much as i don’t know if i can call myself a refugee. (also i don’t want to forfeit my current citizenship lol)
also any uni/college suggestions for computer science? united states is a big nono unless i get accepted by a high ranking college and if it’s in a blue state
Don’t give anyone more information about yourself than you are willing to have potentially used against you if the wrong person manages to get their hands on your application.
Absolutely this, same rule applies when looking for a new job
i wouldn’t tell them that no. no matter where you go there will be a population of transphobes, and you dont want your application to be rejected because you got unlucky to have one of them in the process. it can happen even in the best places sadly.
No. Don’t state that you’re looking for asylum as it might hurt your chances of getting a student visa as it might be considered a risk that you may choose to overstay your visa. This is for any asylum reason, really.
The other problem right now is that many countries don’t yet consider gender issues as a valid reason for asylum. You have to get really lucky to get a sympathetic judge rather than it being a specifically defined reason for asylum. I don’t know all countries, just in general since many places (like most of the US now) consider being trans to be an illness rather than a protected class. But, I can almost guarantee that the US won’t grant asylum on that basis any time in the near future.
Also, for the US, it’s not just the state you need to consider. Even “blue” states are usually only safe within the confines of major cities. The US has tons of rural areas in every state and most are anti-trans. Stick to major cities that are explicitly progressive and you’ll be OK. Also, be on the lookout for cities and/or states that have upcoming bathroom laws to keep trans people from being able to be in public. Basically the same as they did to women when there were only “men’s” public restrooms which basically started the whole separated bathrooms issue in the first place. I love when places have integrated restrooms.
There are transphobes everywhere and potentially giving one of them power over where you move isn’t smart.
Depends if you want to filter out phobic institutions
I’m not trans, but I’m in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada and know a few trans people peripherally, and see more I don’t know around town. So at the very least it’s safe enough for people to be out and about just casually hanging with friends. We have the University of Waterloo (UW, but not University of Washington), and it has well-regarded math, CS, software engineering programs, at least around here.
Just an option I figured I’d mention.
how’s Ontario when it comes to LGBTQ rights? is informed consent a thing there?
It partly depends on where you are. Much like the US, there’s a split between urban and rural.
I can only really speak for Toronto. We have a center-left mayor, fly the progress flag at municipal buildings, have strong LGBTQ protections, and have a generally welcoming population. The biggest issues with trans health care are due to the systematic destruction of our health system by a conservative grifter with a personal vendetta against us, and the federal government (useless libs) is just letting him do his thing. Mind you, that’s a problem province-wide. But otherwise, I feel very safe here
Ottawa seems quite queer friendly from the times I’ve visited. The rainbow flag is flown loud and proud. I also used to work in Kitchener/Waterloo but rarely left the office (I’m a big city girl so it’s not my vibe), but my friends out there seem to like it. I also have trans friends in Guelph. Hamilton recently struck down a transphobic train ad, which is a good sign.
Doug Ford can go fuck himself with a rusty tailpipe
For outsiders: Doug Ford is the Premier of Ontario, vaguely like a governor I think, and is Conservative. From Toronto, Ottawa is about 3ish hours North East by car, and Kitchener-Waterloo (KW) is about 1hr South West of Toronto. Hamilton is perhaps the next major city after Toronto and is around 30 minutes South (ish) of Toronto. Guelph is a smaller city 30ish minutes North of KW.
This is why these various places were all brought up in relation to a comment about KW. Besides Ottawa, they’re all pretty close to each other.
And yes rusty tailpipe sounds about right 😉
Yeah he’s the equivalent of a governor, just for a much larger area. The other significance of Ottawa (for those in the US) is that it’s the capital of Canada and the second largest city in Ontario
