“I’m exhausted, and I’m scared for my family. But the overwhelming feeling is I’m just heartbroken,” Chapman says through tears. Chapman started a GoFundMe campaign to help pay for moving costs. She chose Richmond because she hopes that her husband, whom she is separated from, will be able to transfer his job to one of his company’s offices there to be close to their 15-year-old and 17-year-old autistic daughter. That was our big motivation to move quickly.” “The more she passes as a, the safer she is. Her voice could drop, and there’s no fixing that,” says Chapman.

“If I don’t get her to a state in August where she can receive a shot, then she literally could resume puberty immediately. Now, if her daughter misses a treatment, she will go through puberty-as a boy. What followed was about a year of doctor’s visits, tests, and mental health evaluations before her child, now 15, began receiving puberty blockers.Ĭhapman explains that her child was suicidal before receiving treatment. In 2020, several months into the COVID-19 pandemic, Chapman received a three-word email from her daughter. “People don’t want to live or buy a home in a state where they don’t feel safe.” It’s an issue that’s increasingly spilling over into the housing market. Blue, a Realtor® in Houston and president-elect of the LGBTQ+ Real Estate Alliance. While there are no official estimates of how many LGBTQ+ people and families are relocating, it’s a growing number, says Anita R. More than 76 bills have become law, more than double last year, according to the HRC. More than 220 of those bills targeted transgender individuals with at least 20 states now banning gender-affirming care. Since June 5 of this year, more than 525 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced in 41 states, creating a new record, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Most are relocating to blue and purple cities and states, where housing costs are often much higher but they feel welcomed. Others are desperate parents of children whose gender-affirming health care has been outlawed by their state governments. Some have faced harassment as anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric has spread throughout the country. Chapman is part of a growing number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people and their families fleeing neighborhoods, cities, and states where they are worried about their safety.

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