cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/63078842
Crow Harmony never felt at ease living in Florida as a transgender guy. The state has some of the most restrictive anti-LGBTQ+ laws in the country, and Harmony said he struggled to find employers willing to hire trans people. Last fall, after Harmony’s boyfriend transitioned, the couple lost their housing.
They were just 21 and 20 with no money or job prospects, so Harmony reached out to a Seattle nonprofit for help getting out of Florida. The nonprofit, a trans-led organization called Traction, welcomed the couple with a place to sleep and money for moving. But unbeknownst to Harmony, Traction was struggling, too.
Since the 2024 election, Traction has helped 1,500 trans people flee red states — more than 20 times the 70 people it aided in the 18 months before the election. And it’s just one of several Seattle nonprofits whose leaders say they don’t have the resources to help the number of trans people who’ve left their homes for the safety of the Pacific Northwest.
Though trans people make up just 1 percent of the population in Washington state, the nonprofits that help them say their budgets are drained and their staffs are stretched so thin that last month the Seattle LGBTQ Commission asked Mayor Katie Wilson (D) to declare a civil state of emergency. Such a declaration would free up general fund dollars to bolster the nonprofits’ finances as they help transplants find housing and jobs.
“The conditions,” the commission wrote in a June 2 letter to Wilson and the City Council, “are an urgent policy concern and a life-and-death matter for internal displaced persons fleeing to Seattle for safety.”
Again, I have never claimed that it was cheap. I cannot emphasize this enough, I don’t think you’ve acknowledged my original statement and think I’m somehow saying it’s affordable for everyone.
I brought it up because it saved my fucking life to move here, and I could not afford Seattle. The peninsula gave me my “in”, because it was cheaper than Seattle. Just like it did for many others in this community. There are plenty that have made it work, aren’t in significant debt, and yet aren’t people I would call rich.
It’s honestly been super insulting the way you continue to minimize the community out here, first by basically calling it a drug fueled hell hole (missing the fact that it’s a national issue), and then by saying the community out here is fleeing the peninsula.
Yes, you need to be careful to not fall into homelessness, but I don’t think you understand how bad it is outside of WA for queer people. We unfortunately live in a hyper capitalist country, where it’s already extremely expensive to live anywhere progressive. This deeply affects queer people who then get trapped in red states where they’re not tolerated, they also can’t get a job, and therefore they also fall into homelessness. Not only that, the outright prosecution of trans people in red states is only serving to cause more trans suicides.
Do you think someone is going to just move here without preparing, just because I said it was cheaper than Seattle in a comment on Lemmy? That they’re going to drop everything, including their brain, and move here at any cost? It’s really not as black and white as you’ve been trying to make it.