Amsterdam Court to Rule on U.S. Trans Woman’s Asylum Case

A 28-year-old American trans woman will appear before an Amsterdam court on Wednesday to challenge the rejection of her asylum application in the Netherlands. The Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) rejected her claim on the grounds that there are no special exemption groups for the United States. However, according to LGBT Asylum Support, the information on which the IND based its decision is outdated since Donald Trump’s return to power.

Since Trump’s re-election — and especially following his inauguration — many LGBTQ people have fled the United States. Among them are many trans individuals, as the U.S. president declared upon taking office that the government would recognize only two genders and cut funding for transgender healthcare for minors.
“This has led to significant policy changes, including bans on transgender individuals in the military, restrictions on youth access to transgender healthcare, and extreme limitations on government communication,” reads a statement on LGBT Asylum Support’s website.
“Terms such as ‘gender identity,’ ‘transsexual,’ and ‘non-binary’ are no longer allowed, effectively erasing LGBTQ+ people as a minority. As a result, fear of persecution among transgender and queer individuals — as well as hate crimes — has risen sharply in the U.S., a fact confirmed by recent FBI research.”

The IND maintains that discrimination by authorities or fellow citizens can amount to persecution if it is so severe that victims can no longer function socially and professionally.

That is exactly the situation of the 28-year-old American woman, who recently learned that her asylum application had been denied.
“The discussion will focus on the basis of the assessment,” explains Sandro Kortekaas, chair of LGBT Asylum Support, in the Dutch newspaper Het Parool.
“There is no official country report (ambtsbericht) for the United States describing the current situation.”
According to LGBT Asylum Support, there are “extremely deteriorating conditions for transgender and queer people in the U.S.”

As supporting evidence, LGBT Asylum Support refers to a recent ruling by a Canadian federal judge in the case of a non-binary American asylum seeker. “In Canada, a federal judge recently suspended the deportation of a non-binary American, citing the Trump government’s hostility towards transgender and non-binary individuals. In this case as well, the risk assessment was based on outdated information and was deemed ‘flawed and unreasonable’ by the federal judge.”

In light of the growing number of asylum applications from the U.S. and the lack of an up-to-date country report, LGBT Asylum Support has written to the minister requesting the immediate suspension of these cases until a new report is completed. The organization also calls for all transgender and queer asylum seekers from the U.S. to be included in the national asylum procedure and to be placed, for their safety, in protected LGBTQ+ units.