Trans women in northern Ontario worried about political climate in the U.S.

Paige Landers, a trans woman from New Liskeard, about 90 minutes north of North Bay, says she doesn't plan to travel to the United States anytime soon due to the current political climate.

On his first day in office, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to ensure passports and other federal documents reflect only two sexes.

The executive order also blocks the use of taxpayer funds for gender-affirming care and mandates that prisons are designated by the sex assigned at birth, which means trans women could end up in male prisons.

"As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female," Trump said in his inaugural address.

Landers said that although she has family in Houston, Texas, she no longer feels safe travelling south of the border.

"I used to travel down there fairly frequently on business," she said.

"As I've progressed with my transition and watched the way the politics certainly in various red states has gone, I've been able to sort of look at the list of places that I've been in the United States over the last 25 years and realized, you know, really there's only – well before Monday – there was only one of them that I would feel safe revisiting right now, which would be New York City."

Lilith Armstrong, a trans woman from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., has taken a different approach with the current political climate in the U.S.

Armstrong said she plans to move to the United States soon.

"I'm dating somebody who lives in the States," she said.

"But the main reason is because I believe that trans and queer voices are extremely important. And I know a lot of people in our community can't speak or are going to go back into – I'm going to use quotations here – hiding."

Armstrong said she is privileged because she comes from a family that always accepted her. She said it's important for her to speak up for others who aren't as comfortable doing so.

"I do not blame people for not wanting to go there," Armstrong said.

"If you do not feel safe enough to go to that country, do not go. Nobody is forcing anybody to do anything."

Both Landers and Armstrong said they are concerned anti-trans rhetoric in the U.S. has been trickling up to Canada.

"I do believe, maybe naively, that we actually have a certain amount more protections built in with our far less politicized legal system," Landers said.

"But the reality is we already see that Alberta and Saskatchewan have already passed some very restrictive policies."

Armstrong said if the political winds in Canada follow the American example, she would return home to fight for 2SLGBTQ+ on the northern side of the border.