The US is no longer safe for trans folk.

No country, including Canada, is currently accepting refugees from the US. The US is defined as a safe 3rd country.

This leaves people like me and my family with no legal recourse to find safe harbor. We've fled the US, using whatever means necessary, but now we have to survive in an eternal limbo of bureaucracy. While this story is mine, it is representative of so many others who have also fled.

My name is Simon and I am a trans man who was born and raised in the US. I am a citizen of Canada as well.

In January of 2026, I began actively working on collecting all the documents I needed to apply for my citizenship recognition in Canada. At the time, I was residing in Utah with my husband and his biological children. My husband is also trans, as are two of his children. In a matter of a month, we experienced:

• Targeted harassment of our children, including death threats and bullying that made it unsafe for them to be outside alone.
• Increased politically motivated harassment of us as trans men when we existed in public.
• The disappearance of neighbors to ICE, with talk of ICE being used to round up other "dissidents". 
• The introduction of several bills in Utah that if had passed, would have
  • stripped my husband of his legal rights to his children simply because he supported their transition
  • limit both of our abilities to get and hold jobs as trans folk in the fields we work in
  • remove access to gender affirming care for our children until they are adults (this one passed)
  • remove access to gender affirming care for my husband through the University of Utah gender clinic
• Federally, the pressure from the Trump Administration was shutting down gender clinics even in blue states.
• The Trump Administration was also collecting data on all transgender folk and those who had spoken out publicly against him and ICE.
  • I have a documented record of being critical of Trump on platforms that Trump sent subpeonas to. 
  • I am transgender and have gone through a legal name and gender change in Utah. I cannot hide my trans identity.

The stress became so bad on our trans children that one attempted suicide twice and the other was having daily accidents. All three children were having emotional meltdowns daily. Even if I was willing to risk my own life, I could not, in good conscience, keep my children in a country that was determined to punish them for merely existing as themselves. The choice was clear. We needed to leave.

Since no country is accepting refugees from the US at this time, and because I am a dual citizen of Canada, we came to Vancouver. We submitted my citizenship recognition application at the beginning of March with a request for urgency. My AOR arrived 4 May 2026, but I still do not have my citizenship recognition.

We have no money left. I had $15,000 USD in my bank account when we left our home in Utah, but between rent, food, medical care and starting over in a country neither my husband or I am allowed to get jobs in, we have nothing left. No local resources are available to us - they either are gatekept behind residency or they are gatekept behind refugee status. We're not officially residents and we are not officially refugees. We are surviving on the kindness of other Americans here in Canada who understand. It's not enough. We're breaking.

The older two children decided to go live with their sperm-dad because he has a more stable living situation in Europe. My husband, me, and our daughter are trying to build a life and live as normally as possible, but I am having to borrow money to survive and I don't know when I'll be able to pay any of it back. My daughter deserves more stability than this.

This entire process has helped me realize that we need community supports to help Unofficial Refugees like ourselves.

My goal is simple: I want to build a framework to support Unofficial Refugees. No family should have to go through what we've dealt with. No family should have to flee their homes to a foreign country and then reach a point where they don't know if they can afford food this week or will be homeless next month with no one to help. 

Right now, I have no money, but I have time. So, I am networking, building connections, and trying to lay a foundation so that those who are still fleeing the US, those who aren't as lucky as I am, those who don't land in a community with people who understand, can survive better than we are.

Money donated will first, go to ensuring my family is fed and housed, and then to feeding and housing other Unofficial Refugees. For every $20CAD donated, I will put in an hour of time working on building a community support system to help other Unofficial Refugees navigate the realities of coming to Canada with no legal status.

Please, help me support Unofficial Refugees in Canada by donating and sharing this fundrazr.