This is what the death of the rule of law looks like

This is what the death of the rule of law looks like.

And this is exactly what so many of us had feared, for the longest time, with everything that is going on.

The rule of law officially no longer exists in the United States, arguably the world's most powerful empire until very recently.

People are being deported. Some, into prison camps, into foreign concentration camps — gulags — over baseless declarations of war and empty accusations. Hundreds of Venezuelans, including queer refugee claimants, have been sent into foreign prison camps (most notably Guantánamo prison camp and El Salvador's CECOT megaprison), denied due process, the right to a fair trial, and any semblance of human rights as provided for by both the U.S. constitution and international human rights instruments, notably the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And when the courts said no, the Trump-Musk administration continued, in a blatant act of contempt of court.

Others, such as Dr. Rasha Alawieh and Mahmoud Khalil, have been respectively deported despite temporary restraining orders by the courts, or are facing forced disappearance, deportation and revocation of status over merely displaying an ounce of humanity towards Palestinians — a chilling attack on free speech. And, surprise or no, it shouldn't come as a coincidence that around the same time Trump starts sending Venezuelans to foreign gulags, Israel is restarting its genocidal war on Gaza, and has murdered more than 400 in the span of a few hours — in clear breach of a ceasefire it had previously agreed to right before Trump took power most recently.

Meanwhile, trans people are being denied ID, and being effectively banned from entering the U.S. over the very fact of them being trans. Legislation outright criminalizing transness — deeming my existence and our existence an outright fraud — is being considered for the first time ever — showing just how significantly the Overton window has been allowed to shift in the last few years. Civil rights are being explicitly repealed, for the first time in American history. And, to no one's surprise, the rule of law is also being pushed aside, for the sake of attacking trans people. Court orders ordering gender marker changes are being declared 'void' by executive fiat, and trans women prisoners are being transferred to men's prisons despite judicial orders to the contrary.

The same is happening worldwide. Turkiyë is banning any acts of support or compassion towards trans people, making it punishable by three years' jail time. Hungary is striking down against Budapest Pride, planning on banning it by legislative order. And back home, in Canada, our very own human rights instruments — notably the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms — are being pushed aside to make way for legislated hate against trans kids.

Where is all of this going to end?

Or are human rights, as we know them, gone? Are we going to have to live out the rest of our lives in pain and misery?

* * *

The rule of law lies on a core principle: a government is beholden to its own laws. It is a theoretical equilibrium, sometimes summarized as: "no one is above the law", and "everyone is equal under the law". It is a flawed paradigm, one that fails to account for unjust laws, yet is the very paradigm which prevents governments from acting arbitrarily (irrationally).

The rule of law is the very principle that ensures that human rights instruments can be enforced. It is the very thing that allows citizens to make sure they are safe from being assassinated by political opponents. It's perhaps the very basis of contemporary democracies.

What happens when the rule of law is killed? The very civil rights you have been promised and guaranteed to have ends up being about as useful as toilet paper.

* * *

Empathy is a foundational human value, part of the very thing that links us together. Yet, the very people who display empathy for others, notably by providing them necessary healthcare, are being criminally charged for their actions. The world's richest man and a Nazi, Elon Musk, is attacking the very idea of empathy for others — y'know, the very thing that has allowed us to make our way through countless humanitarian crises throughout history. The very thing that has allowed us to survive human-made climate change catastrophe up until now. And now... deportations — complete with immigrants, not accused of any crimes, in shackles — are now becoming material to ASMR at, according to the White House. How far have we fallen?

One of the most prominent texts on fascism — Ur-Fascism, by Umberto Eco — was a text that was first introduced to me, in its French version (Reconnaître le fascisme), by my constitutional law professor, Frédéric Bérard. One topic that was consistently brought up to me was just how recognizable it would be, when you recognize the warning signs. Let me now apply it to the United States...

The cult of tradition? Check. Just look at white supremacy.

The rejection of modernism? Check. Just look at tech bro culture.

The cult of action for action's sake? Check. Just look at all the attacks on trans people.

Disagreement as treason? Check. Just look at how the NIH is defunding any research going against so-called "U.S. national interests" — on topics as generic as the health outcomes of trans people.

Fear of difference? Check. Just look at all the attempts at deporting pro-Palestinian immigrants, or the attempts at criminalizing trans people altogether.

Appealing to a frustrated middle class? Check. Most U.S. exit polls show it pretty clearly.

Obsession with a plot? Check. The so-called "trans agenda" is exactly that.

The enemy as both strong and weak? Check. Trans people being somehow behind a "globalist agenda" yet being deemed mentally ill by authorities is but one example thereof.

Life as permanent warfare? Check. Just look at the techbro insurgency against basically every group it deems the 'other'.

Populist elitism? Check.

Heroism as norm? Check.

Machismo? Check.

Selective populism? Check.

Newspeak? Check.

I don't have any further words to say — just that things are not looking good for the future. The world is burning, yet we don't realize it. Yet, that's the whole point. We're being set on fire, yet being gaslit to pretend that that isn't the case. There's a reason they hate critical thinkers: "it's easier to run an authoritarian government if you don't have a population that knows."

Rule of law never goes away by decapitation or public execution. The State never announces that fascism is therefore state ideology. Instead, anti-fascists are deemed enemies of the state. And we're mere seconds removed from that becoming the truth.

The future looks bleak, and I have no other words to say.

May humanity prevail.

* * *

P.S. Owing to the currently unenforceable nature of civil rights in the U.S. and the prospect of arbitrary detention, trans people should avoid all travel to the United States. A new travel advisory will be uploaded shortly.

by Celeste

Photo of U.S. Capitol being stormed by Trump fanatics on Jan 6 2021.

Notice to trans people: Avoid non-essential travel to the United States

This is a message to all trans people currently outside the United States (and in particular to trans Canadians): you should avoid non-essential travel to the United States — regardless of the reason for which you may need to step inside the country. Trans people who still may need to travel to, transit through or immigrate to the United States should exercise a very high degree of caution.

A regional advisory also applies to the states of Florida and Texas: avoid all travel. I won't go further into detail about this specifically, but Erin Reed's U.S. anti-trans risk map and, for Florida, Equality Florida and the Florida Immigrant Coalition' advisories provides a good explanation why this is the case.

Note that I'm but one person, and I'm not trying to pretend to replace Global Affairs Canada or any government in issuing travel advice. This is not a state-issued travel advisory. I am but one transfeminine East Asian-Canadian jurist trying my best to keep trans people around the world safe and alive!

LAST UPDATED: February 5, 2025. Further updates are to be expected with future developments.

 

The political context

The United States has become an unsafe jurisdiction, in all meanings of the word, for trans people. Donald Trump, the very same person who has banned trans people from the U.S. military during his first term in office, has started his second term in rage, issuing presidential orders demanding the legal non-recognition of trans people within mere hours of him coming into office.

His executive order, titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”, speaks for itself. In U.S. trans journalist Erin Reed's words, it is "aimed squarely at dismantling legal and social recognition of transgender people across the United States". As an institutionalized act of hate, it doesn't seek to protect women by any means — Trump loves to proclaim his responsibility for overturning Roe v Wade, setting reproductive rights in the U.S. back by 50 years — but instead throws the whole weight of the U.S. federal state apparatus onto the lives of trans people.

Most notably, section 2 of the order codifies trans people out of existence, by enforcing a binary definition of "sex", defined accordingly to the reproductive cells that a person produces 'at conception' (a veiled attempt at fetal personhood). section 3(d) of the order demands that the U.S. Secretaries of State and Homeland Security, as well as its U.S. Director of the Office of Personnel Management, force passports and other travel documents to reflect an ID document bearer's "sex". I will not go into the inaccuracies of the binary definition of sex, as this has already been discussed numerous other times by other trans researchers, writers, and activists. However, I will mention that the White House's press secretary, in an interview to NOTUS, stated that passports will have to bear their holder's "God-given sex, which was decided at birth".

The same aforementioned NOTUS interview suggested that existing passports won't be invalidated. However, no guidance has been provided as to how all this will apply to trans people entering the United States. As such, here's what I can tell, and what I can speculate as of this moment.

 

The speculative, or, the arbitrary

No sources exist yet as to how trans people crossing the U.S. border may end up. A lot of what is happening inside the U.S. internally may not end up applying to trans people transiting or visiting through the country. However, four things are certain:

  • Donald Trump, alone, cannot change the law. Ruling by decree isn't (yet) possible in the United States.
  • Executive orders, as directives, serve to direct the enforcement of laws.
  • The legality of Trump's Day 1 executive orders are dubious.
  • Courts don't respond to stuff in the span of minutes. However, Trump has already named a huge number of judges and justices, many of which are ideologically aligned with him.

Will trans people be forced to misgender themselves to enter the country? If the aforementioned executive order comes into effect, or is otherwise codified into statute (which I would expect to happen very soon, because of Trump's dehumanizing intentions towards trans people), probably yes. This is likely going to affect people entering the U.S. on U.S. passports more so than people entering the U.S. on another passport, as two questions are at play here: how Trump's executive order impacts travelers at large (unclear), and how the same order affects U.S. passport holders (explicitly directed in the EO).

Will trans people be turned away from the border because they are trans? It's impossible for me to tell yet, though it is a genuine and valid fear. Theoretically, the U.S. has to recognize passports from other countries — but it's hard to tell how they would be able to catch "trans passports". Regardless, I expect that trans people with a passport containing an "X" gender marker can be forced to, when crossing the U.S. border, declare their sex assigned at birth when entering the country, and face additional hiccups crossing the border. Trans people who are non-passing may be forced to do so as well, though that may end up being something that's left up to the interpretation of Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers.

Trans people may also already be known to the CBP under the U.S. government's extensive surveillance apparatus. Under a reasonable interpretation, CBP might be able to force a trans person to misgender themselves or declare a "'sex' affidavit" (similarly to Florida) unless they have evidence as to their (citing Trump) "God-given sex" — and yes, this includes body scanners in use at airport security.

What's most likely going to happen, at least in the short term, is that trans people will face inconsistent treatment at the U.S.' different borders. Some may wave them through, and be respectful; this will be in particular true for cis-passing trans travelers, as well as trans travelers who have only ever been known to U.S. authorities under one gender marker. However, given how the same executive order grants license to discriminate (and an obligation to discriminate) to the entire U.S. government's apparatus, trans people who face disrespectful and discriminatory treatment will have no immediate recourse. Arbitrary detention under suspicion of "fraud" — and other blatant denials of civil liberties — may be possible.

Broadly speaking, the U.S. government's attacks on trans people are nothing short of a genocidal and existential threat towards them. To quote my friend Fae Johnstone in a recent Canadian Press article, “[we're] a community that is under attack by far-right politicians who are desperate to use us as a scapegoat to sow division and gain power, all while restricting freedoms that should be afforded to citizens everywhere." Even though not much is known yet, and Trump's executive orders are being introduced on day one for the sake of shock and awe, volatility is the name of the game — and for that reason, given the highly volatile yet negative situation re: trans rights in the U.S., I would advise that trans people hold off any travel plans, including transit, to or through the United States.

 

For trans people who still need to travel to the U.S.

Here's a few pieces of information I can give to trans people who still need to travel to the U.S. in the next little while:

Be ready for rapid legislative or policy changes that could affect you and/or upend your safety. Prepare for the worst. Have a U.S. immigration lawyer's number on hand. See if you have access to travel insurance that can cover such issues.

U.S. citizens or people traveling on U.S. documents (such as a visa and/or a green card) are likely going to be more affected than a 'mere tourist'. Note that the U.S., per Trump's executive order and a Secretary of State order, is refusing to issue new passports with corrected or "X" gender markers, and has suspended such pre-existing applications. In addition, the U.S. government has confiscated the identity documents, including foundational identity documents (such as birth certificates), of trans passport applicants; some applicants have been even threatened with arrest, or have had their documents destroyed intentionally by passport officers. Trans U.S. citizens should avoid updating their passports for the time being, as the documents they submit may end up in jeopardy.

Assume that the U.S. government, CBP, TSA or other relevant government agencies probably already knows about you, and could easily find out about your trans identity. Don't underestimate the surveillance state. CBP and ICE are also active across much of the U.S., and can (and will) profile people traveling or living on so-called "less powerful" passports. Note that early in the morning of January 24, the TSA took down its page on trans and non-binary travelers (archived here); the same happened to travel.state.gov (the U.S. "travel advice" page) on January 31st, with LGBTQIA+ replaced with 'LGB'. Any protections formerly conferred to trans travelers at U.S. airports, even for domestic-U.S. travel, should be considered nonexistent; any travelers facing discrimination at the border or at airport security should expect no immediate recourse.

Your country of citizenship, even if it brands itself as "trans-inclusive", may not be able to protect you from U.S. anti-trans governmental tyranny. However, a consulate and/or an embassy can nonetheless intervene. You should have their contact on hand, just in case.

Trump's anti-trans orders will inevitably end up being the object of injunctive court cases (court cases seeking to block the order from taking effect). Some of them may end up being enjoined (blocked). Others may not, and in either case, things can be overturned upon appeal. This means that the impact of these orders will likely be in flux for the next few years.

Blue states, of course, will be much safer than red states. Cities tend to be safer than the countryside. Research how protective the state(s) you are planning on visiting are towards trans people — Erin Reed's map is a good starting point.

Avoid all bathrooms under U.S. federal jurisdiction if you can, as bathroom bans (often enforced by transphobic citizens themselves, as part of the current mass anti-trans hysteria sweeping the U.S.) are sweeping across the country. Though, do prioritize your own safety first ­— if you do need to urgently pee, please do so instead of exposing yourself at risk of a UTI!

Trans women, and in particular trans women of colour, are likely going to be the most affected by Trumpist anti-trans policies. This is particularly true in immigration matters. The entire premise of "protecting women", in contemporary far-right discourse, is to manufacture an excuse to attack trans women, by denying their identities (by branding them as "male") and by claiming that they are predators (a tactic already used in the 1970s against gay men).

[Updated February 5, 2025] A Trump anti-trans sports ban executive order is poised to direct the Department of Homeland Security to "review visa policies to address males falsely asserting they are females when entering the United States to compete in women’s sports" — veiled language designed to target trans women athletes. Trans women athletes from outside the U.S. should avoid any and all competitions in the U.S. at all costs. As for non-athletes, it is unknown whether fraud investigations may be pursued for declaring what the Trump-Musk administration deems "incorrect sex". More remains to be determined.

Safety is relative. For example, a jurisdiction which outright criminalizes trans existence is, for now, less safe than the United States. However, many countries elsewhere in the world — such as Canada — are going to be safer than the U.S.

Know that if you are detained and brought to a U.S. federally run detention centre or jail for any given reason — up to and including overzealous officers — you are going to be thrown into a prison based off of your perceived or actual (legally defined) "sex". If this ever happens, make sure you have both a lawyer and a consular contact. Be aware that V-coding and dehumanization is standard practice for trans people, in particular trans women; Trump is, in particular, attempting to repeal anti-rape protections for trans women, putting them at extreme risk. Even though theoretically the judiciary can help you defend your civil rights, and one court case thus far has led to an interim injunction, within the current context (with a corrupt SCOTUS), don't count on it.

Note that U.S. preclearance facilities can theoretically be safer than crossing the U.S. land border or passing through U.S. immigration in the U.S. Canadians, in particular, should, if they have to enter the U.S., prioritize doing so through YYJ (Victoria), YVR (Vancouver), YYC (Calgary), YEG (Edmonton), YWG (Winnipeg), YYZ (Toronto-Pearson), YOW (Ottawa), YUL (Montréal) and YHZ (Halifax) airports, during the hours in which preclearance facilities are open. Europeans should, in this scenario, do the same through SNN (Shannon) or DUB (Dublin) airports (both in Ireland), or the aforementioned Canadian airports, also during such hours. In both cases, you can always withdraw your request for admission and still be on Canadian or Irish soil and subject to Canadian or Irish rather than US law (Public Safety Canada and gov.ie (Ireland) have more information on the matter).

And finally, don't forget — no matter what the U.S. government says, you exist.

Prioritize your safety first and foremost.

 

A few resources

Here are a few resources I would suggest (even though some may be out of date):

by Celeste