More context shamelessly stolen from him: “The two organizations partnering on it are Jewish ones, but I didn't see anything on the application form asking or requiring applicants to be Jewish”

Oh this might be awesome.

Maybe not for me personally because I don't know if I could afford rent in other places but

That’s why we wanted to share!!

It's worth knowing this exists in case it gets difficult in my State

I’m so glad!

If people need somewhere to go, I can attest that Maryland is very LGBTQ+ friendly. We have laws on the books preventing discrimination based on gender identity or orientation, and protecting right to gender affirming care.

I wish I had more income because while WI isn't the worst they're currently trying to ban at least youth care and I don't feel particularly secure you know?

But rent is way over my fixed income in all of the places I can think of that would be an improvement.

if you can live in a rural place ( meaning you have a car and can drive) that opened you up to places with fairly cheap rent, but again, there's the cost of you have to drive everywhere

Naturalcyber: living in a coastal state, I feel that. (I live with my parents; I cannot afford my own place on my salary. Just outside NYC, for me.) but you may be able to consider safe states if you look outside major metros and towns. It may not be convenient, but for me, for example, I could afford to live in south Jersey, just not north.

There may be more options available in safe states as long as you’re willing to have a bit of an extra hike to wherever you may be going.

komikbookgeek: SOMMMMMMME places wouldn’t necessarily require you to have a car. If you live far enough out but still on a rail/light rail/bus line, you could very possibly manage with just a bicycle!

(I can personally attest that the above is not true of anywhere remotely in or near the LA metro so. Js for any SoCal/SoCal considering folks.)

Naturalcyber: what is your budget, btw? Do you want some help looking if you have a particular state in mind? I wouldn’t mind doing the legwork on some research for you

yeah that's the problem

Yup. Transportation in the places more distant from major metros is just harder. It’s definitely not impossible, but there are logistical challenges. For example, while I own a car, as long as I moved to the right place in south Jersey I simply wouldn’t need it to get to work. This is just one very specific example, ofc.

But wherever you look, especially on the coasts, there’s usually pretty decent public transportation infrastructure even for smaller towns. Definitely worth considering!

yeah the cost of living in MD was surprisingly high when I went to visit my parents or else I'd be jumping on it, but it IS still a trans friendly state if you can manage it

the cost of living depends a bit on where in Maryland, because we definitely have those frufru areas. there's also incentives and credits if you try for a place around Baltimore. water is cheap and depending on the place, you might only have electricity and not gas costs

there's also more than being trans friendly, the system is very supportive about women's rights, in that they don't put road blocks in the way of you wanted a hysterectomy (they just want verbal confirmation you definitely don't want kids that way)

there's also easy programs to access if you need help with utilities, rent, and everything, in that they tend to be timely in getting back to you

my parents live around baltimore, but i didn't easily find programs for if you're moving in there from out of state re: financial aid and incentives, but that might just be the limits of my own searching. bmore is definitely a higher cost of living as compared to the south rn so it's a big jump for some people

it's just gonna take folks doing a lot of googling on what states will work best for them. there was a list going around on which states are sanctuary states (MD is one iirc) and if i find it again I'll drop it here for easy ref

America's Horniest Horror Movie University ok here we go i found it. in case you don't want to click through:
"There are a few states that actually have Shield/Refuge laws designed to help trans people fleeing from trans-unsafe states, which also guarantee trans folks access to healthcare.

These states are: California, Colorado, Illinois, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Minnesota, New Mexico, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Washington D.C.

Additionally, some states have “trans sanctuary” executive orders signifying safety for trans folks seeking healthcare. These states are:

Maryland
New Jersey
New York"

many of these states are at a higher cost of living than more unsafe states, but there's some options out there to look through!

heartfuls I do have a car and I can drive! but driving can get incredibly painful for me. While I wouldn't mind living rural, I'm not sure I could consistently drive 2+ hours to dr appointments again like I did growing up. And my income is my disability payments. Right now my rent under section 8 is 271 (and I assume utilities would be much higher in rural)

and honestly the farther west the better. a 12 hour drive is not enough to dissuade my mother from being herself (she would love if I moved back to rural enough to proudly fly confederate flags NY to take care of my grandmother, my aunt with dementia, and my sister with cancer. ..and her)

Oh man! That used to happen to me--driving being painful, I mean. Disability 🫠 I got surgery a few years ago finally, but until that time it was miserable. I completely sympathize!

Naturalcyber: wanna shoot me a dm or something? We can chat!

yes, Minnesota is a very good state for trans folks to flee to. cost of living is somewhat manageable. you'd just want to choose your housing unit location wisely wrt transportation and what your income can afford

idk how accurate it is as of current but if you're interested in California there's affordable places

warning right off the bat though I'm not fully experienced with most of these places but I can warn about Bakersfield being a not very nice place, Fresno and Stockton and Sacramento have been seeming to have peaks of violent crime lately

other folks from California can chime in to confirm or deny bc I just get things from the news (and also a lot of weirdness comes out of Bakersfield)

other side note I'm from central so I don't know much about the BIG places

Confirming Bakersfield is an unfortunately racist place to live in. Stockton is a mix of rural and city, but fairly diverse--has one of the largest Hmong populations, and a mayor championed a basic income to alleviate poverty. Fontana is okay, kind of insular but near lots of other things.

a lot of the parts of norcal north & east of the bay area are reasonably safe and diverse, stockton is kind of known to have crime but imo not any worse than other big CA cities

unfortunately "affordable" is california affordable so like ymmv

(and i mean like central valley/marin things are different and can be more racist/homophobic if you go really north / really east)

yeah I am proud of our strong workers rights and diversity, and we codified same sex marriage and abortion rights + disallowing book bannings based on race/gender/sexuality/history (but only in public libraries unfortunately and socal is Certainly A Place), in addition to being a sanctuary state. and I will admit, I don't like newsom but he doesn't take shit

but then there's the...everything else, we also unfortunately have issues with stagnant wages and the job market

and I will caution unfortunately our status as a blue state is very precarious in a lot of ways like I am genuinely terrified of voters fucking us over and installing a cop governor next year (even though more than ever we should be like "fuck no" at repubs??)

sorry for getting off topic op I'm just very passionate about my home in good ways and bad

norcal person here, it’s much more affordable than socal and the bay area but tends to be more conservative and if u wanna live in norcal college towns are ur best bet

central resident chiming in to say it can be a mixed bag, you WILL see trumpies here but largely people are small town polite, we're a "smiles and says good morning while passing on the street" kind of folks

(which I know is Weird to other people but I like it lol it feels homey)

yeah lmfao without doxxing myself im a queer person of color in an area that is solidly purple but a slightly warmer purple iykwim and ive never had anything weird happen

but thats also anecdotal so: ymmv

Apparently Massachusetts has been added to the list of sanctuary states (as of a vote from like, yesterday)