TransEscape

You deserve to live a safe, supported, and happy life.

Quick Exit

About this Site

About TransEscape

Knowing where you’re going is the first step.

TransEscape is a place to start planning a safer, more supported future. We bring countries and U.S. states into one careful, source-linked view so you can identify realistic possibilities and know what to investigate next.

If the US or your state won’t respect you, it doesn’t deserve you.

Who we are

We are private individuals driven to improve the lives of trans and gender-diverse people. This project is independent, ad-free, and built around a simple conviction: everyone deserves the chance to live safely, openly, and with dignity. We are volunteer developers, researchers, and LGBT+ advocates sick of seeing our community feel helpless.

Countries

Country scores weigh legal protection, healthcare, physical safety, immigration pathways, affordability, employment, how easily an English speaker can navigate daily life and services, and community support. Serious legal or safety warnings can cap the rating even when the average is higher.

U.S. states

State scores use a separate model for legal protection, affirming-care access and security, safety protections and enforcement, affordability, workplace and housing protections, community support, and resilience against hostile federal action.

How the research works

  • Start with primary evidence. We prioritise statutes, regulations, court decisions, government guidance, public datasets, and official immigration and health information.
  • Cross-check with specialists. Civil-rights organisations, academic centres, reputable polling, and established newsrooms help identify gaps and explain how rules work in practice.
  • Keep unlike choices separate. Countries and U.S. states have different score models because crossing a border is not the same as moving domestically.
  • Preserve the trail. Profiles retain their sources, inputs, methodology version, and verification date. Story links accumulate on a destination page as that place appears in published updates.
  • Recheck continuously. Automated tools help collect and organise changing evidence; the standards, editorial choices, and accountability remain with the people maintaining the site.

What a score cannot tell you

A score is a starting point, not a verdict. Conditions vary by city, race, disability, income, age, family structure, citizenship, and healthcare needs. A high average never cancels a serious warning. U.S. states cannot fully shield people from federal laws, enforcement, funding decisions, data demands, travel restrictions, or court rulings.

Before making a consequential move, verify current rules and consult qualified legal, medical, immigration, financial, or tax professionals where appropriate. If you spot outdated or incomplete information, please use the private correction form, thanks!

Changelog

v1.2 — Youth tools and clearer information · 12 October 2026

  • A big push into providing specialist scoring and resources for trans youth. This was our biggest request, so we added lots of resources and designed, developed, and implemented a new, optional youth scoring system.
  • Added optional youth scoring for countries and U.S. states.
  • Added a quick exit button.
  • Improved destination cards and standardised resource categories.
  • Updated rating settings, privacy information, and Site Kit analytics.
  • By default, hide countries and states rated “do not consider”.

v1.1.1 — Ratings and Updates fixes · 7 October 2026

  • Standardised country and US state rating labels: Good Option, Consider, Bad Option, and Do Not Consider. Existing scores and rating thresholds are unchanged.
  • Custom country and US state comparisons now recalculate rating labels and colours as priorities change, using the weighted score and existing critical-category limits.
  • Corrected news place labels, removed the automatic US flag, and reserved the 📣 TransEscape label for project news.
  • Removed the unused Other news category and its Updates filter.
  • Checked all published news posts for tags and categories, corrected missing Europe tags and international-news categories, and added the 🇪🇺 flag for European updates.
  • Expanded the place filter to include every destination profile, with separate groups for countries, US states and DC, and regional and federal news. Countries and states sharing a name are filtered separately.

v1.1 — SEO · 6 October 2026

Improved search visibility and measured homepage engagement.

  • Added search metadata, social previews, structured data, and sitemaps.
  • Added a better homepage search title and summary, plus country- and state-specific search titles and descriptions.
  • Made all 116 destination profile links available in the directory before JavaScript runs (whoops).
  • Added homepage content and navigation click tracking as a Google Analytics key event, covering destinations, profiles, news sources, and next steps. This helps us see which areas of the site get the most attention so we can focus our work on what matters most to visitors.
  • Updated the sitemaps in Google Search Console.

v1.0 — Initial release · 10 September 2026

Established TransEscape’s source-linked relocation guide. The date records the earliest publication of the site’s foundational pages; a separate formal launch date has not been verified.

  • Country and US state profiles, with separate scoring models, source references, and legal and safety warnings.
  • A searchable destination directory, destination comparisons, and homepage scorecards.
  • News updates and related stories on destination profiles.
  • Moving next steps, an explanation of the research methodology and its limits, and a private correction form.