""I was a queer, gender-nonconforming person with no institutional protection, navigating state systems that were openly hostile toward people like me," Asgar said. "Leaving Bangladesh became less a decision and more a fight for survival.""
""The American discourse around trans rights was fracturing along partisan lines; visibility was increasing at the same time as backlash," said Asgar. "This country is not a uniform 'safe haven' for queer or trans people. It is a place where safety is uneven and always entangled with race, class, immigration status, and geography. Visibility here carries its own risks.""
Armed extremists murdered Bangladesh's only LGBTQ+ magazine editor and a friend, prompting an urgent escape by a surviving queer, gender-nonconforming person. The survivor obtained a one-year U.S. visa after three difficult months and relocated to Maine. The move likely saved the survivor's life but brought exposure to a U.S. political climate marked by rising visibility for trans people alongside growing backlash. Safety in the United States is uneven and influenced by race, class, immigration status, and geography. Accurate historical data on LGBTQ+ immigrants is scarce, though current estimates put queer immigrants at about 1.3 million, roughly 3 percent of all immigrants.
Read at Advocate.com
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