Latest news with #HannahKreager
Toronto Sun
4 days ago
- Politics
- Toronto Sun
American seeks asylum in Canada over Trump's transgender policies
Hannah Kreager, a transgender American woman applying for asylum in Canada due to Trump's policies. GoFundMe A transgender woman from Arizona who says the United States is no longer safe for the transgender community because of Donald Trump has applied for asylum in Canada. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Hannah Kreager, 22, has 'fled' her home for Calgary, she revealed on a GoFundMe page. 'I have fled in hopes of finding safety, security and the freedom to continue to live my life, and access/take my medications as prescribed,' Kreager wrote in the fundraiser, which she hopes will raise $5,000. Kreager claimed that attitudes toward the transgender community 'have grown increasingly intolerant' due to the influence of the Trump administration, which 'takes basic rights away from trans people on the basis of nothing more than their identity.' The 22-year-old noted: 'The danger to trans individuals in the United States is very high, while the threat my community poses is exceedingly low.' Kreager said she felt her only means of survival was to leave America. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'So I'm here in Canada with a terrific lawyer taking up my unprecedented case: Seeking asylum from the United States of America on the grounds of violation of human rights,' Kreager wrote. 'My case is a precedent-setting one, and if successful, could make asylum for trans people in the U.S. possible in currently pending, as well as future cases.' RECOMMENDED VIDEO On the day Trump took office, he issued an executive order banning use of the 'X' marker as well as the changing of gender markers. The order says a person is male or female and rejects the idea that someone can transition from the sex assigned at birth to another gender. Kreager's lawyer, Yameena Ansari, told the Globe and Mail that she and other immigration lawyers have been flooded with inquiries from trans Americans about how they can move to Canada. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'This case is about safety,' Ansari told the publication. 'It's about whether Canada will recognize the threat Hannah faces in the U.S.' Read More To be granted asylum, Kreager must prove she has fled the U.S. because of a 'well-founded fear of persecution,' according to the government of Canada's website, meaning a return to America would put an individual at risk. 'When one right after another, one protection after another, is taken away from a community or a person, how many rights should she let go before acting in self-protection?' Kreager asked on her donation page. 'How long should she wait to seek help or safety? To me, with the election of Donald Trump after his campaign targeting immigrants and trans people, there is no time left to lose.' Ontario NHL Toronto & GTA Ontario Celebrity
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Transgender American woman files for asylum in Canada over Trump
An Arizona transgender woman claims the United States is no longer safe for trans people because of President Donald Trump and has applied for asylum in Canada. Hannah Kreager, 22, has now 'fled' her home in the Grand Canyon State for the Canadian city of Calgary. 'I have fled in hopes of finding safety, security, and the freedom to continue to live my life, and access/take my medications as prescribed,' Kreager wrote on her GoFundMe page Her legal filing cites two executive orders by the Republican president, including where the federal government only recognizes the male and female genders, according to The Globe and Mail. As a result, US passports and identity cards with an X gender marker are no longer being issued. Her own passport displays an X, she told the Canadian news organization, claiming she is concerned what might happen to hers after hearing the passports of other transgender people have been seized or damaged. 'Attitudes in the United States have grown increasingly intolerant toward trans people by those who have been influenced and emboldened by a president and administration that takes basic rights away from trans people on the basis of nothing more than their identity,' the US migrant stated. 'The danger to trans individuals in the United States is very high, while the threat my community poses is exceedingly low.' Her pending claim for protection in the Great White North could be a landmark case, the American believes. 'I'm here in Canada with a terrific lawyer taking up my unprecedented case: seeking asylum from the United States of America on the grounds of violation of human rights,' she posted online. 'My case is a precedent-setting one, and if successful, could make asylum for trans people in the U.S. possible.' Kreager's attorney Yameena Ansari claims she and other Canadian immigration lawyers have been flooded with inquiries from transgender Americans since Trump took power about how they can move to their country. 'This case is about safety,' her attorney Yameena Ansari told the Canadian news site. 'It's about whether Canada will recognize the threat Hannah faces in the U.S.' Other Americans have also applied for refugee status north of the US border. An Illinois family with transgender children has made a similar request of the Canadian government, reported the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Kaitlyn and Ted Berg, parents to older children who is transgender, and a younger singling who identifies as gender fluid, pulled their kids from school one day after Trump's inauguration. 'When I saw what happened, Donald Trump being elected, my gut started turning,' Kaitlyn told the CBC. 'And that is when I started looking at how to get my family out safely.' The military veteran parents drove to the US-Canada border without passports to a border crossing where they made an asylum claim. However, Canadian immigration officials have stressed that claims from Americans face an uphill battle, as they must prove that they have a 'real fear of persecution or face serious harm, such as torture or cruel treatment, in their home country or where they usually live.'
Globe and Mail
02-06-2025
- General
- Globe and Mail
American transgender woman files asylum claim in Canada after Trump's edict on gender
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.,' said her lawyer Yameena Ansari. 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.' 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 Canadian Medical Association to file legal challenge over Alberta law limiting access to treatment for transgender youth 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 President 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, President 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.
