You may want to start lurking on the AmerExit 
community. Might give you some ideas. You're definitely not alone in that regard.
Reading this thread reminds me that USA and Canada are the worst countries for social life in the fucking world.... Probably in all of human history for that matter.
Fuck I hate it here, but I will probably never know anything else (at least not while I'm still young)
The US doesn't have a walking culture outside some cities like NY, Boston, DC, San Francisco, and maybe Chicago. In most part of the US it's strange to see people walking at random, or any, hours. I spent some time in Sugarland, Texas, and walked to the pharmacy once, some 15-20 minutes walk and people stopped to ask me if I was okay. The HOA president contacted the family I was staying with to let them know walking was regulated and someone in the house was violating the rules.
What in the god damned fuck
Least psychotic HOA. Seriously.
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What sort of life are you looking for? Do you want a relatively familiar lifestyle (ie western), English speaking, similar material wealth? Or would you be fine completely changing everything, speaking Spanish or Arabic or Chinese, owning next to nothing, and maybe losing life options but otherwise not being forced into a 9-5 slog.
Europe has a lot of problems, and your experience will vary a lot depending on the country. But it will be an easier transition for an American compared with idk, Honduras or China. And although Europe sucks in a lot of ways, it is better in certain key areas. More walkable cities, little to no second amendment gun nuts, more consumer protections, more vacation, etc. Of course as a tankie I understand the political and economic limitations of Europe, but practically speaking it is not a bad option for an American.
In spite of the public figures and reputation, I'd argue the UK is honestly fairly trans-friendly as a culture IME. In decades of knowing and seeing trans people out, as well not always dressing to my own supposed gender. I've never seen anyone have a hard time for it anywhere (I'm sure it happens, but clearly not that frequently).
It's still a crumbling fascistic country in decline, but not really any more so than all of the fucking west. I'd still rather be here than the USA. Downside is citizenship gets you access to butt nowhere else, whereas EU gets you access to all the EU.
I'm looking for some familiarity, I need some space to do woodworking and access to nature for outdoorsy things. I kinda want less stuff in my life tbh, I feel like consumerism is eating at my soul. I've thought about a few places in Europe, particularly Portugal because it's easy to get citizenship, which can then get you access to the rest of the EU and the Netherlands and or some place in Scandinavia sounds good. Easier route would be Canada, but it's so burger adjacent I'm not sure I could stomach it.
I wanted to leave Burgerland too, but I settled for moving to the Atlantic northeast... and for the most part, it's been an improvement. Striking a balance between what you can afford for living conditions and being close enough to a less-chuddy urban area like Chicago or NYC where some of those vibes reach you can help too.
This is also what I did. The urban northeast feels like a different country. It has problems of gross inequality, poverty, and gentrification (I suppose I'm contributing to them), but no one is particularly bothered by me being trans and there are far more left wing people and groups.
thirding this, did the same thing and it's been a massive quality of life improvement even if it's still the US.
i'd consider checking out the urban midwest aswell. Chicago and Minneapolis are both cheap as hell, and have a lot of great people and vibes
Burger brain disease is just a more advanced stage of capitalism plus settler colonialism, which is practically everywhere to one degree or another (minus settler colonialism in some places). Not to mention the Empire's influence is everywhere.
If a big concern for you is anti-trans violence, anywhere in East Asia would be much better than the US simply because there's much less violence in general. I like both mainland China and Taiwan. Taiwan is pretty lgbt friendly but is also pretty anti-communist. I know Chinese has a reputation for being difficult to learn, but I think that difficulty is over stated too
Tbh, I might try moving to a deep blue part of the US. Way easier to culturally assimilate, don't need to learn a new language
I've thought of this as well, I love Seattle, never been to NYC though. But Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal also sound nice because it's similar flavor without it being in burger land proper.
as someone who studied poli sci, your best bet in Canada is Montreal, it is the least burgery place. Plus you get to live in gorgeous Laurentia.
Australia fits some of your criteria, but is heading toward full on burgerlandia. It's currently better at least. Less overtly violent. Transphobia never took off as a political wedge nearly as much as elsewhere, though it is still present.
Though we might be the Ukraine in a China-US conflict soon so that wouldn't be fun
Though we might be the Ukraine in a China-US conflict soon so that wouldn't be fun
Uhhh wut? That's concerning, I have good friends in AUS.
Its an exaggeration, mostly. There's actual us troops here for starters, so I don't think it'll be a literal Ukraine. But in the event of hot war between China and the us we are absolutely fuuuuuuuuuucked
And the us is getting ready for said hot war
That war is never coming comrade. It's the same sabre rattling as the cold war, keeps the MIC going. There will be proxy wars as there already are, but China will continue to slowly weaken the foundation of capitalist economy until it can't sustain itself.
Australia is a shit hole (and it's jumping from one settler state to another). But it feels less on the brink. Some states like Victoria have trans friendly laws and certain features of our healthcare system being half social democratic, half neoliberal make accessing trans health care easier than say the UK.
I don't know how trans friendly it is, the city is sort of low violence and low animosity in general so it is hard to tell, but Shanghai seems okay.
If you want to assimilate you'd have to learn the language. But if you get stuck in the immigrant circles, very few of them are Americans, they all left after covid and won't come back.
I would love to go to China, but I'm not very good at picking up new languages and would stick out quite a bit as a 6'2" trans woman.
What place are you talking about?
I'm not the person you asked, but what foxontherocks said was:
it is hard to tell, but Shanghai seems okay.
I think it's safe to assume the whole comment is about Shanghai.
Don't know how I missed that, thanks!
If you have Irish ancestry you might be able to apply for citizenship. But if you don't work a tech or pharmacy job you will likely never own a house here
No Irish, but a lot of Dutch. Unfortunately I'm too far removed to claim an ancestry citizenship. I love the idea of the walkable cities of the Netherlands, though I can't take the language seriously.
Thailand? It's middle-development so not consumption-oriented.
I had a much longer list before u said trans-friendly. Panamá closer to your home is trans-friendly but getting pretty fancy/capitalist now.
Thailand is so fucked up politically that the longer you live there the angrier you'll get. This is coming from someone who may well retire there.
Do you speak anything other than english? If you don't you probably should start there.
I'm out of practice, but I can get around with Spanish.
Where I was at for a long minute, but... I've got too many ancestors buried under this fuck of a nation that will never compensate them. My wings are pinned by the bones of my forebears. They slaved here, they died here; undoubtedly, I will die here the same.
I’ve been spending this year living in different countries for a few months each to see where I want to ultimately end up. Been to Mexico, Japan, and currently Korea. I think Japan is by far the most trans friendly of those three, I met a lot of super cool trans/nb/gender nonconforming people there and the vibes were really good. Ofc I can only speak from second hand experience as a cis guy but it seemed like a really welcoming place overall.
Mexico City has a pretty sizable lgbtq+ community, my trans brother and his husband have lived there for two years with no issues. People are still generally less open about it though and I’d be wary of anywhere outside of CDMX as they tend to be much more catholic/reactionary.
Korea is uhhh not a good place to be a cis woman let alone gay or trans. Some of the men here can be incredibly hostile and outright violent to anyone outside their narrow range of “acceptability”. I’ve had numerous friends get harassed and assaulted by drunk assholes on the street before. 1/10 would not recommend
Taiwan, Vietnam, and Thailand are next up and from what I’ve heard are some of the most trans friendly places in Asia, I can keep you posted on how that pans out lol
Thanks for the input, that's really interesting! Unfortunately I would stick out terribly in Japan as I'm pasty white and 6'2". I've heard from some trans women that they had okay experiences there. They'd get clocked but it wasn't any agro attitudes, just like 'oh hi trans person' type of attitude. I would honestly love to move to Mexico or Cuba, but I have issues with heat tolerance and I've had a few heat injuries.
How the heck do you manage living in different countries like that?
I actually met a pasty 6’+ trans woman there and she had very positive impressions of the country, of course ymmv. The heat might be more of in issue in Japan than Mexico though, 90+ with high humidity well into September in Tokyo while Mexico City was low 80s in April/June.
I work in the spreadsheet factory but have been fully remote for almost 3 years, lost the only reason I had for staying in the US so I’ve become one of those gentrifying digital nomads
I fucking hate it here, but more importantly I hate being complicit in the crimes of the US government. I would move if I could, throw away my citizenship, just to pull my meager contribution of inflicting suffering on the world. But I'm an idiot who spent the last two decades learning to get good at one very specific thing that my entire career is built on and is only valued in this one corner of the planet. My partner also can only do their job in this state. I foolishly never learned another language despite being raised by a multilingual parent. I trapped myself here and now I'm looking for a way out when it's too late.
Reykjavik Iceland is one of the safest cities in the world. I'd love to move too, but keep my burgers without the land part. When I was there, met a guy from Mexico city that moved for that reason
Sounds lovely, I need a cold place. I've only had a layover at there airport and the place looks like a village lol!
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