Protesters march at the Transgender Day of Visibility rally in New York on March 31, 2025.Kylie Cooper/Reuters
An American transgender woman has lodged an asylum claim in Canada, in what her lawyers say is a test case of whether U.S. President Donald Trump’s edicts on gender and other recent measures restricting equality rights constitute persecution.
Hannah Kreager, from Arizona, on Monday lodged an asylum claim with the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada on the grounds that she has a well-founded fear of persecution in the U.S.
“This case is about safety. It’s about whether Canada will recognize the threat Hannah faces in the U.S.,” her lawyer Yameena Ansari said.
She said Canada considers the U.S. as a safe country to live in, but this is no longer true if you are transgender.
Ms. Ansari added Mr. Trump has singled out transgender people through executive orders, including one saying the federal government recognizes two sexes only – male and female. She said this has trickled down into a wider erosion of their rights and protections across the U.S.
She said the case is “precedent-setting on the basis of it not being safe in the U.S. for being trans.”
Hannah Kreager.Supplied
She also said her 22-year-old client is “a young lady with a well-founded fear of persecution. She is very much fearful.”
Ms. Ansari is among the Canadian immigration lawyers who have been inundated with inquiries from transgender Americans about how to move to Canada, including whether they could claim asylum on grounds of persecution by the U.S. government.
Mr. Trump has decreed that the U.S. government now only recognizes two genders and has stopped issuing passports and identity cards with an X gender marker to transgender and non-binary Americans.
The Trump administration has also abolished the U.S. government’s diversity, equity and inclusion departments and signed executive orders designed to exclude transgender people from the U.S. military and restrict their participation in sports.
Scores of transgender Americans seeking route to Canada, including through asylum claims
Ms. Kreager, who is in Calgary, said she felt far safer since coming to Canada, and said “the safety alone has increased my confidence tenfold.”
In an interview, she said she was worried about renewing her passport, which carries an X, after hearing that other transgender people had had them confiscated or damaged. Ms. Kreager also said she was worried about going to the bathroom in a public place in the U.S., after reports about police coming in and questioning people about their gender since Mr. Trump was elected.
She said even though transgender people make up a tiny proportion of the population, they are being disproportionately targeted in the U.S. as “the easiest people to pick on.”
“I was very stressed out in the States,” she said, adding that she was worried that if something did happen, it wouldn’t be dealt with fairly by the authorities.
Ms. Kreager said transgender people should be able to have their documents updated with their desired name and gender, but she can no longer do this in the U.S. She added she is having to launch a GoFundMe page to cover her legal and living expenses.
In his address to Congress earlier this year, Mr. Trump referred several times to transgender people, including that he had signed an executive order preventing transgender women from participating in women’s sports.
Ms. Ansari said Mr. Trump’s edicts had led to the curb in support for transgender people in state-funded institutions, as well as their rights by some American state legislatures.
A bill proposed in the Texas legislature on “gender identity fraud” would, if passed, make it illegal to identify as transgender on official documents.
The bill, filed by Republican state representative Tom Oliverson, would make it a state felony if a person “knowingly makes a false or misleading verbal or written statement” by identifying their sex assigned at birth incorrectly to a government body or their employer.
Earlier this year, Texas state representative Brent Money, a Republican, filed a bill that would make it illegal for a health care provider to treat patients, including adults, with surgeries, puberty-suppressing medication or hormone therapy if its purpose is to affirm the patient’s gender identity.
The bill is based on a law enacted in 2023 that prohibits such treatments for minors.
Ms. Ansari said there are also now strong grounds for Canada to create an exception for transgender foreigners living in the United States to allow them to claim asylum here.
Transgender people from outside the U.S. are not allowed to make a claim in Canada if they cross the border from the U.S.
Under the Safe Third Country Agreement with the U.S., which came into effect in 2004, asylum seekers must make a claim at the first country in which they arrive. The agreement, which is being challenged in the Canadian courts, means that most asylum seekers arriving at the Canadian border are automatically returned to the U.S., with some exceptions, such as people facing the death penalty.