Where to go from here?
Where to go from here?
The US seems to turn red. While I am living in Europe I am already wondering where I should go. Is there somewhere in this world where being LGBTQ is not a constant battle and where it will likely stay that way? Because typically the insanity coming from the US swaps over to EU and many states here are already on their way to fascism on their own.
I'm European and I've been wondering this myself. Spain looks solid, maybe? Definitely don't go to Germany (where I live), we're on track to elect a guy in 2025 who loves the Republicans, and there's several popular parties that are extremely Russia-friendly and hate LGBT+. And even the current centrist government is engaging in hostile rethoric against "migrants".
There is no safe country. There are countries that are safer than others but especially in the West, nationalism and fascism are on the rise and queer people will (and already are) falling victim to it.
The best way to prepare is to seek a strong queer community, and volunteer to help it stay strong and healthy. Even under a fascist government you can be happy, you must only find the right people to surround yourself with. Humans are resilient, and especially queer people (especially queer ethnic minorities and queer people of colour) have lots of experience with surviving under repression.
While you’re at it, join a workers union too because workers rights are just as fragile as queer rights.
I'd say most north eastern EU countries (Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, most of Scandinavia) is safe right now. The Netherlands (where I live) has been right-leaning for a while now and even though it got worse this past election the focus is mainly on nationallism and anti-immigrant policies at the moment.
As far as a can tell, Germany and Sweden are undergoing similar shifts to the right as the Netherlands.
Calling it a shift isn't accurate at least for sweden, i'd more say that the right has become more extreme.
To the point that even other right wingers keep having to tell the far right party to knock it down a peg, or just straight up fuck off.The social democrats have sat quite stably at above 30% of the votes for a long while now, and nowadays the 4th largest party is the Left Party which is explicitly socialist.
And in the EU elections the Greens got third place, over the far right party.
That’s how it is in Sweden as well. There’s this far right nationalist party, which is a concern, but at least they don’t seem to be super concerned with LGBTQ+ (yet).
That last bit sounds like a bold “yet”, to be honest.
Could you maybe share in which area in the EU where you live? Obviously not the specific location, the general area might be helpful.
I feel that there are certainly countries in the EU where being queer is perfectly fine. (I'm from Germany, so ye)
I am from Germany as well. And I agree right now it is okay. But we are on a downwards trend (just this week a queer bar has been set ablaze). And when I look towards the next election I fear that this downward trend could go get even worse.
Right, I kinda forgot that.
AFD and CDU really are a thing, arent't they.
But I think that the community here is too strong to back down now. Germany has been very open and encouraging towards queer people. I'm assuming that most of the voters for these parties are older, but I have also heard that many youthy people voted for AFD, which is still very surprising to me. I am genuinely interested what they see in these parties. Or more generally: What about rightish parties is appealing? Is it just aw yeah, punk, we go against the grain! or something else?
The Netherlands are also an interesting place for me, they seem to be a rather social country and I like the way they handle energy and piracy.
Some other info that would make it easier to help as well: OP, are you looking for accessible gender affirming care and name changes, etc? Or is it about feeling safe within the community as an openly/visibly queer person?
It is mostly about feeling safe with my chosen family and being able to actually plan a life. As of now I see basically no point in planning any part of my future as it feels as if any plan I could make could be disrupted at any moment.
I know this is a hard ask, since no one can see into the future. It is essentially a question that should not exist. Where do I go and can actually live 50-60 years without the fear of getting killed by an angry mob at some point? Where do I go where this question is not part of the equation?
Ideally that country also should still exist, as climate change will swallow some countries as well.
The sad truth is that there is no way to say right now. I believe, even if by basic statistical probability, that there will be some European nations that are able to avoid sliding to fascism in the coming decade. It's definitely not going to be Italy, and I'm pretty confident it won't be the Netherlands. I really can't imagine a country like France going to fascism, but then Le Pen keeps growing in popularity so who knows.
The point is, it can happen anywhere and can succeed anywhere. The only thing you can do right now is try to prevent it from winning in your country. If that fails, hopefully there'll be a confirmed safe haven then.
I'm not American or European, but my country likes to follow whatever America does and our far-right has in the past tried to get their help to stage a coup, so I'm worried about this as well - they couldn't get Biden's support, but they are buddies with Trump and he is more than happy to assist. I'm pretty sure my country is going to follow the US and throw itself off a cliff in two years, and I really hope I have an emergency escape hatch come 2026-2027...
I am keeping my eyes on the Netherlands and Malta. The Netherlands shifted right but this might be temporary or they allign more centre. Don't know anything really. But probably I will relocate in Germany to a left leaning city.
France it should be good
France teeters on electing Le Pen every fucking cycle
But it's full of French!
Yeah I know that's the cool part of it ^^
This is obviously not that feasible, but if you have the money (and the energy to learn Chinese), you could move to Taiwan. The first in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. Discrimination based on sexual orientation is constitutionally prohibited.
This Wikipedia page might be helpful to you on your journey to a place with better LGBTQ rights: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBTQ_rights_by_country_or_territory
I wouldn't trust Trump to uphold the U.S.'s traditional military commitments to Taiwan. Living through the Chinese invasion wouldn't be fun, and afterwards you're looking at Chinese rather than Taiwanese policies.
Australia?
Gay, traight, trans, we don't care as long as you can:
- Pick fruit
- Shear sheep
- Operate a 60 ton Komatsu in a Pilbara open pit mine
And preferably do it in 40 degree heat.
"Alright, kids, today we’re gonna learn how to operate a 60-tonne Komatsu. Bobby, stop digging for gold and pay attention – this is pretty bloody important."
As a trans femme Victorian (Australian state), I would agree with this. Preferential voting helps stop the worst of fascism's rise in Aus. The majority of people in the big cities couldn't give a fuck if you're trans. There are areas that are still not very safe, but they are known constants that can be avoided, and are ticking slowly towards acceptance. Progress isn't always linear, but there's not a snowflakes chance in hell that we backslide as far as the US has. It was even a right-wing government that passed same-sex marriage laws here.
However, I will note strongly that we still have a lot of issues with racism in this country.