By Jill Boogren
In the fall of 2023, Charley Maples and his partner packed up all of their belongings, leased an apartment sight unseen, left loved ones behind, and moved to a state where they had never been and knew no one. They were fleeing Texas, which was becoming increasingly hostile toward them. Access to health care was in jeopardy, and they began feeling less and less safe. Maples is transgender and joins others who are finding refuge in Minnesota.
Speaking to a large crowd of supporters gathered at the State Capitol on March 31, 2025 for Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV), Maples described the grim realities faced in other states.
“In Iowa, I can be fired for being trans. In Florida, I can be denied medical care. In 18 states it is a criminal offense for me to use a restroom consistent with my gender identify. And in Odessa, Texas, private citizens can collect a $10,000 bounty on me if they catch me using the men’s room,” he said.
Once in Minnesota, it was “immediately clear” that they were safer here. Maples said it’s hard to put into words the feeling of existing safely, calling it an “environmental” feeling. While in Texas he felt a general sense in the air of uneasiness – walking his dog past an election sign in someone’s yard for a senator who’d made anti-trans remarks, for example, or walking past a coffee shop where someone had jeered at a friend. Here when he goes for a walk, he sees Progress Pride and Black Lives Matter flags, which signal support for marginalized groups.
“I’m proud to call Minnesota my home, and I’m so happy to be here. I feel wanted and welcome,” he said.
But it was lonely at first. A few months after arriving, Maples founded Twin Cities Queer Transplants (TCQT) to connect with other LGBTQ+ people starting a new life here so they wouldn’t feel isolated. Since its launch in February 2024, membership has grown to more than 600 people. Most have already moved here. Others are considering or have already decided to relocate here or are locals also looking for community.
A grad student interested in medical ethics, Maples will defend his dissertation in June over Zoom, and won’t walk with his cohort because he can’t go back to Texas.
Ash Tifa moved here from New York in January 2022, during a snowy winter. Priced out of living in Brooklyn, Tifa wanted a job in the nonprofit industry, which she found exclusionary and really hard for trans women to break into in New York City. She looked for somewhere with a connected, queer, trans community and found her way to Minneapolis. She also didn’t know anyone here.
A trans legal advocate, Tifa now runs her own consultancy firm helping people navigate complex legal systems. She regularly hosts name- and gender marker-change clinics. She’s also a communications coordinator for OutFront Minnesota, the state’s largest LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, working specifically on building trans narrative power.
“All of my day is surrounded by building power for the trans community,” said Tifa. She feels lucky, in that she showed up here – said “This is who I am. This is what I do” – and has felt valued. She also met and married her wife, C.
With a background in immigration, Tifa is aware of the conditions refugees face across the world. Asylum seekers are often professionals with families whose lives are turned upside down as they figure out where to go next, and how to get themselves and their families there. While not fleeing from one country to another, LGBTQ+ transplants are still displaced and face similar pain and hardship, she observed.
Maples said transplants leave everything behind to escape anti-trans legislation and violence. He spoke of a couple in Texas who had a divorce arrangement wherein if one party left Texas they would lose partial custody of their kids. For their own safety, they made the decision to leave but no longer have visitation with their children.
“It’s very tragic,” said Maples. Yet more and more LGBTQ+ people are choosing to uproot their lives and move across state lines.
Transforming Families (TFF), a peer-led support group for trans youth and their families and caregivers, has been expanding over the last decade. According to executive director Hannah Edwards, meetings originally held in Minneapolis have branched out to St. Paul, Mahtomedi, Apple Valley and, most recently, Mankato and Rochester. What about a decade ago was a membership of around 100 people is now at more than 1,000 members in the Facebook group and 1,800 subscribers to their online newsletter. Over the last three years, they’ve experienced a drastic increase as trans youth and their families come to Minnesota from all over the country – South Dakota, Iowa, Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Georgia. They’ve seen enough of a spike in attendance that they need more facilitators to cover their meetings.
“We’re a small, scrappy group. But I’m just thankful that we’ve honed what we do so well that we’re able to meet that need to expand,” said Edwards.
As stated on TFF’s website, “Families meet other families to share, talk and hang out. We’re here to listen to each other’s stories, exchange resources, build community and have fun. It’s a simple idea that works.” They host in-person meetings and are now hosting meetings over Zoom for people who are moving to Minnesota.
TFF hopes to partner new families with already-established families, as a form of mentorship. This may mean checking in before it snows or letting them know about the State Fair – things, said Edwards, “that are both joyful and practical.”
So, why Minnesota?
The landscape in the U.S. has shifted for trans people in a few short years. There are bills that strip protections against discrimination, remove access to necessary medical care and even penalize parents and care providers for honoring the needs of transgender youth and adults.
Trans activist and reporter Erin Reed, of Erin in the Morning, tracks legislation introduced in every state. According to Reed, there were 70 anti-LGBTQ+ bills in 2020; in 2025, there are more than 850. Her “risk assessment map” shows in red the states with anti-trans laws either on the books or that are in danger of becoming law soon and includes two dark red “do not travel” states – Florida and Texas – because of laws there. In blue are states with laws in place or likely to pass soon that are affirming for trans people. If the map divided into red and blue states seems familiar, it’s because anti-trans legislation has been led by Republican-controlled legislatures, passed largely along party lines. There is now a large swath of red in middle America and in the South, which impacts cross-country travel for trans people; in some places, it’s not safe for them to use a public restroom.
As a ”trans refuge state,” Minnesota is one of the outliers.
Tifa pointed out that Minnesota has been a longstanding leader in the fight for trans rights. In 1993, the Minnesota Human Rights Act was amended to include protections for trans people. Minnesota led the fight for marriage equality, which passed in 2013. In March 2023, Gov. Tim Walz signed an executive order protecting access to gender affirming care. And in April 2023, championed by Rep. Leigh Finke (St. Paul, Roseville) and the DFL Queer Caucus, the trans refuge bill was signed into law.
“The list of states that are just friendly to us is very small and getting smaller, and Minnesota has really stepped up to the plate and said, ‘We are going to do as much as we can to protect this community,’” said Tifa. “We have legislators doing the work, we have a governor and attorney general doing the work, we have a very loud and active trans community that is fighting for their rights… We’re in a really good position here, which is very markedly different than a lot of other places in the country.”
While she views Reed’s maps as useful, Tifa encourages people to do their own risk assessments. In addition to the political dynamic, there’s a cultural and social dynamic. Some people are thriving where they are, even in deep red states. Some may feel safer in urban areas over rural areas, while others might be well supported in their communities no matter the size or location. She urges her clients to do regular safety self check-ins.
Even with strong protections for trans people, Minnesota is not immune from attacks. Two sports ban bills were introduced by Republicans this session (neither passed). And while Minnesota is considered a safe state, passage of the 2023 trans refuge bill in the House was close, 68-62. This means constant vigilance for advocates and lawmakers.
And now, the level of support that’s taken decades to build in Minnesota is being tested as the fight moves to the federal level.
Threats of erasure
In November 2024, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson announced a policy barring trans women from using public bathrooms at the Capitol that match their gender identity. Transgender Congresswoman Sarah McBride, of Delaware, agreed to comply. But the rhetoric has gotten so ugly that a male Republican committee leader referred to her as “the gentleman” from Delaware, to which she quickly retorted, “Thank you, Madame Chair.” Another committee member called out the chair’s disrespect, and the committee adjourned.
The federal government has removed the “T” from LGBT on the website for the Stonewall National Monument, which recognizes the Stonewall Inn as the birthplace of the gay rights movement in New York City in 1969. Two trans women, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, were key figures in the Stonewall Uprising that ignited the movement.
Passports are reportedly getting returned with an incorrect gender to citizens, some of whom legally changed their name and gender decades ago. President Donald Trump has threatened to withhold federal funding to school districts and universities who refuse to comply with his executive orders. And on May 6, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to allow a ban on military service by transgender personnel while a legal case challenging it is considered.
“Anti-trans forces in Washington are writing executive orders that attack the civil rights of transgender American citizens,” said national transgender workplace consultant, speaker and author Vanessa Sheridan at TDOV. “But do not fail to see this is only a first step. Their ultimate goal is to eliminate us all together.”
Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) back in March 2023, the Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles said, “Transgenderism [sic] must be eradicated from public life entirely.” Project 2025, the Christian right-wing manifesto for the first 180 days of a conservative administration, targets use of pronouns and bathrooms, access to health care and military service. It explicitly calls to delete the terms sexual orientation, gender identity, gender equality, diversity, equity and inclusion, among others, out of every existing federal rule, regulation and piece of legislation.
“Our own federal government has become weaponized against the transgender community… What kind of country do we live in when the government that is supposed to be our protector is now a persecutor, a predator and a perpetrator?” asked Sheridan. “Keep in mind that being transgender is not a choice, but do you know what is? Bigotry.”
The anti-trans rhetoric is harmful – especially for youth, said Edwards. Edwards’ teenage daughter is transgender, and although she’s affirmed at home and at school, she still has hard days knowing that there are people debating her very existence and her right to access a joyful, full life. She’s now thinking about college and has to consider whether programs she’s interested in are located in safe states.
For Maples, it’s no longer about waking up to whatever Texas Governor Greg Abbott might have done to erase his rights overnight; with the number of executive orders being issued from the White House, he now has to wonder what President Trump has done.
“I wish the worst thing I could expect to wake up to was construction on the way to work or a broken toaster or buying decaf coffee on accident,” said Maples. “We deserve to be safe, but we also deserve the mundane. We want to be allowed to be ordinary.”
Minnesota fights back
Thanks to the state laws already on the books, Minnesotans are fighting back.
“[Attorney General Keith] Ellison has been one of the most active attorney generals in the country fighting the latest slew of executive orders… attacking our community,” said Tifa.
Most recently, he filed a lawsuit defending Minnesota’s right to protect trans people under our state’s Human Rights Act (see Rep. Leigh Finke’s remarks on the lawsuit in the online version of this article).
“We are constantly thankful in our groups as caregivers for people like Keith Ellison, Gov. Walz and Lt. Gov. Flanagan, protecting us and our kids passionately… Not in a quiet way, but in a very loud and proud way,” said Edwards. “That makes us all feel a lot safer.”
Tifa reminds people that while executive orders are scary, they don’t in themselves make laws.
“Minnesota state law has not changed, will not be changed by any of the executive orders regarding trans health care. Trans health care is a protected right here in Minnesota, regardless of age,” she said.
Having support at the highest levels sets the tone for how institutions operate. Health care providers can continue care for trans youth in part because state leaders help them feel like they can make that choice. And despite threats that federal funding will be pulled if Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) measures continue, teachers can still conduct their classrooms in ways that are affirming for students.
“Because the kids haven’t gone anywhere despite all of the executive orders,” said Edwards. “We need our leaders, our district admin and school boards and everybody to be brave and unapologetic and bold and feel supported by the government here within the state.”
And while Tifa advises against applying for gender and name changes on federal documents such as passports right now, Minnesota residents can still obtain state IDs that reflect their gender identity.
Rep. Finke told the crowd at TDOV that the opposite of fascism is not democracy, but love.
“There is only one side for good, and it is our side, and we will win that fight,” she said.
Check social media for these groups and more to find large events and smaller gatherings during Pride in June.
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