Interview- Director of Trans Rescue Discusses the Closing Jaws in the United States, and How to Get Out

This interview is with the head of Trans Rescue, which works to get trans people out of dangerous countries.

The original interview has been edited down for time and clarity.

Jane: I'm Jane Migliara Brigham. With us, we have Anne Ogborn, the head of Trans Rescue, an organization that is helping trans asylum seekers and refugees. Do you want to start by doing a quick introduction? 

Anne: Sure. Can I start with a correction? Our mission is to help transgender people, intersex people, and more broadly queer people flee from places where it's dangerous to be trans worldwide. We often do that through the asylum system, but not always. We'll do whatever we need to do. We're not primarily involved with helping people through the asylum system. We're involved in helping people flee. 

Jane: Excellent. And how did you get into this particular field? 

Anne: Misty Hill and myself met on Twitter back in 2016. We were concerned with the political climate in the U.S. even that early, and we were both planning to get out. Both of us realized that there wasn't much information for Americans leaving, and decided that we would correct that by starting an organization that would provide such information. We had a bit of scope-creep along the way. So we very rapidly realized that Americans were not like our first and most serious problem. We got a rather abrupt introduction to what it's like to be queer in places like Iran. 

We became Trans Rescue in 2022 in order to have a proper NGO structure. Our work is deadly serious and needs to be supported by a corporate structure in the background. 

Jane: Do you want to talk about the specifics of how trans-rescue accomplishes its goals? 

Anne: People contact us. We talk with them, we interview them, we formulate a plan. We unfortunately ask them to wait because we have a considerable backlog. We simply do not have enough money to get everyone out. We have an operations team that formulates a plan to get them out of wherever they are. At the moment, we are working with UNHCR to move people to intermediate countries, and then UNHCR relocates them to western countries as they have slots available. 

Jane: And you said that you started by thinking about the US, but then it became very clear early on that most of your work would end up being in far more dangerous countries. Not the countries that were getting worse over time (as in the west), but the countries that have never been good. 

Anne: No. We divide countries into three groups: safe, dangerous, and countries of new concern. The latter are countries like the UK, the United States, Poland, that were once fairly good on trans rights, but have decayed significantly. Of course, we have to treat the situation in the United States differently. We cannot do James Bond-ish, high touch evacuation for every trans person in the United States. There are 2.8 million of us. But we believe that if people work in a business-like manner, most Americans can get out. 

So instead, we do things like office hours every midday Saturday in the United States. You can call in and talk to one of us, get advice about your situation, and get help planning to get out. We have a number of specialized consultants for certain legal problems- if you believe you are eligible for citizenship by some method- If you are struggling with custody- and so on. We can help with all of those things. We have a roster of experts on those subjects. 

Jane: I actually called into one of those last year- right after the last election. It's because of your urging that I'm starting to go down the route for Italian Birthright Citizenship. It's just been like a painful bureaucratic process. I started a year ago and they still don't have all the documents together to send out an application. It's a nightmare. 

Anne: We started with trying to get everybody to get a passport. I must say that's about the only part [of our campaign] that was successful. We started surveying, and when we started the campaign, 33% of trans Americans responding on our social media said they had a passport. The last one we ran was 75%. 

Jane: The campaign from you and others seems to have worked fairly well. Basically all my friends have passports now. That wasn't a thing a couple of years ago. It's an excellent change. 

Anne: Yeah. So lots of folks worked very hard on that. That's what we do. 

We have gotten about 185 people out of dangerous countries. We have less good numbers about how many have been helped to get out of places like the United States, because we just don't have as much contact, but we know it's got to be a large number. 

We are limited by the amount of money we've got. We exist on private donations. If you are in the business of bringing in mostly brown-skinned Muslim Trans People into Europe, you don't have a lot of institutional support. 

Jane: I do want to just hone in on the fact that one of the big things that I got from your organization was the attitude that most Americans have the capacity to leave. It's true. I agree. One thing I keep running into is that this attitude is rare. I've been doing a series where I've been interviewing trans politicians across the U.S. They all say that most trans people are essentially stuck where they are, so you have to help people in place. I don't believe that. Would you like to explain your thoughts on that? 

Anne: First of all, close your eyes and imagine a refugee, just a refugee in general. You're probably imagining someone poor. Yeah? The majority of people are not wealthy. The majority of refugees are not wealthy. 

Furthermore, there are at least 400,000 people at the moment out on the hippie trail, being perpetual travelers, mostly in South Asia and Southeast Asia. If they can do that, so can you. I know many of those people from my own travels, and none of them have two nickels to rub together. 

The truth is that you can get out. If you get the whole package for a passport, which is what we recommend, you get a card and a booklet, et cetera, you're going to spend $160. I know that standing on a corner with a cardboard sign makes about $5 an hour. If you do an eight hour day of it, that's about $40. In four days, you can earn enough to have a passport. 

If you have a passport, you can get out. It is the only requirement. It is possible for almost anyone. 

There are some exceptions. I know that for anyone who is a prisoner or on parole, it may be very difficult to get out. It's going to be painful for everyone. 

I don't think it's going to be easy, even if you're relatively wealthy, and your plan is to get an engineering job in Europe. You still are going to be selling your house, discarding your possessions, and so on. Yes, it's going to hurt. You've got to do it anyway. The trans politicians are wrong. I have a number of volunteers in the organization who got out of the United States with very little money. 

Jane: I completely agree with you. The only real difficulty with moving across the US versus going to another country is the visa process and the bureaucracy. Don't get me wrong, that's a pain in the ass…