American family say they'll beg Canada for asylum if Trump bans puberty blockers
An American family has said they would seek asylum in Canada if President-elect Donald Trump moves forward with his promise to ban gender-affirming care for minors.
Sara and Erez Haluf had already moved from their home in Missouri to Maryland, after the Republican-led state passed a law that states that no one under the age of 18 would be able to start puberty blockers or hormone therapy.
'We thought that by leaving Missouri and coming to Maryland, that we would be safe,' Sara told CNN's Gabe Cohen. 'And now we're being threatened with anti-trans legislation on a federal level.'
They are now considering fleeing the country entirely, drafting an asylum application with the Canadian government as they fear what may happen to their 12-year-old transgender daughter under a Trump administration.
'If push comes to shove, we will go north, we will go to Canada,' Erez said, as his wife explained it would take a federal ban on gender-affirming care - like the puberty blockers their daughter takes - for them to once again uproot their family of five.
'A federal healthcare ban would likely be the moment we know it's time to leave here,' Sara said.
Trump had vowed on the campaign trail to revoke policies supporting gender-affirming care, especially for those under the age of 18.
'On Day One, we will sign an executive order instructing every federal agency to cease the promotion of sex or gender transition at any age,' he said at a Mom's for Liberty event in August. 'They're not going to do it anymore.'
Sara and Erez Haluf have drafted an asylum petition to the Canadian government out of fear President-elect Donald Trump will roll back the gender-affirming care their transgender daughter uses
Trump has also said public schools will no longer receive federal funding if they promote ideas related to gender transitioning or transgender people.
He further vowed that any hospital or healthcare provider that performs gender-affirming surgery or care to minors would no longer meet federal health and safety standards, and would therefore no longer receive federal funding.
During the campaign, the Republican party also spent more than $200million on anti-trans ads that often ended with the statement: 'Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.'
The party's official platform even stated: 'We will keep men out of women's sports, ban taxpayer funding for sex change surgeries and stop taxpayer-funded schools from promoting gender transition, reverse Biden's radical rewrite of Title IX Education Regulations and restore protections for women and girls,' according to NPR.
After hearing all of Trump and the Republican Party's rhetoric, the Halufs say they now fear their daughter may soon not be able to access the puberty blockers she is currently taking.
'If she didn't get the care, she would end up going through puberty, and it will be traumatizing to her to see all of those things happen to her body,' Sara said.
She noted that the puberty blockers give their transgender daughter 'more time to live in the body that she has now.'
But the Halufs are not the only ones concerned about transgender rights under a new Trump administration.
The couple said having their daughter go off puberty blockers would be 'traumatizing'
Since Trump secured the White House earlier this month, transgender people have been flooding crisis hotlines and transgender organizations have had to increase their support systems, according to the Associated Press.
The Rainbow Youth Project, for example, has increased virtual peer groups and town halls so LGBTQ+ youth can connect.
It Gets Better has also focused on reaching young people online through social media platforms like Twitch and YouTube to create supportive environments even if legal protections are rolled back, said Brian Wenke, the group’s executive director.
The move comes after a study published in the journal Nature Human Behavior linked an increase in attempted suicide attempts among young people to 19 states that passed bans on gender-affirming care, NPR reports.
About 3.3 percent of high school students now identify as transgender, while another 2.2 percent say they are questioning their gender, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey released last month.
It found that 72 percent of transgender and gender-questioning teens experienced persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness in the past year.
Those teens also reported higher rates of bullying at school compared with peers, as about a quarter said they had attempted suicide in the past year, the CDC.
'This is a frightening moment for transgender people and their families,' said Shannon Minter, a transgender civil rights lawyer with the National Center for Lesbian Rights.
'There is a very real possibility that the new administration may adopt policies that cause devastating harm.'
Trump had vowed on the campaign trail to revoke policies supporting gender-affirming care, especially for those under the age of 18
But legal analysts have questioned Trump's ability to go after transgender care.
The Affordable Care Act contains anti-discrimination language in its text, and the Civil Rights Act was amended in 2020 to include transgender people.
Analysts now say if Trump were to move forward with his ban on transgender care, there would be a spate of federal lawsuits.
'It would be contrary to law and also it would violate the constitutional and statutory protections that transgender people enjoy,' Sasha Buchert, who was lead counsel on a federal lawsuit that challenged Trump's ban on transgender people serving in the military, told NPR.
It is also unclear whether Canada would offer refugee status to transgender Americans.
One transgender woman, Daria Bloodworth, successfully argued to Canada's Refugee Appeal Division in October 2022 that a combination of gun culture and rising transphobia left her at risk for persecution in the US, CBC reports.
Refugee Appeal Division member Dilani Mohan concluded that she had a legitimate fear of persecution, citing some state laws regarding the right to equal treatment for transgender Americans and concluding that relocation within the US was not an option.
But Canada's Federal Court overturned the ruling this year, saying the Division erred in finding that Colorado authorities were incapable of protecting her and that her safety could not be guaranteed anywhere within the United States - pointing to New York City as an option.
