Panic in Hollywood’s LGBTQ Community: Some Weigh Emigration Ahead of Second Trump Term

Anxiety in the LGBTQ community is spiking as Donald Trump’s second term nears, with gay couples rushing to get married and others going so far as to leave the country, or at least contemplate such a drastic move.

Ellen DeGeneres and wife Portia de Rossi didn’t wait for Trump to be sworn in again before moving from California to the Cotswolds in the U.K. —  and they’re not alone.

Emmy-winning trans actress Laverne Cox confided to Variety that after the election, she and her friends are researching cities in Europe and the Caribbean for a place where they’ll feel safer.

“I don’t want to be in too much fear, but I’m scared,” she said. “As a public figure, with all my privilege, I’m scared, and I’m particularly scared because I’m a public figure. I feel like I could be targeted. I think that they spent close to $100 million on anti-trans ads. It’s deeply concerning.”

Kirsten Schaffer, executive director of Women in Film, told TheWrap that, as a lesbian in a long-term relationship with her partner and a mother of two, getting married is on her mind.

“It’s keeping me up at night [worrying] for myself and the wider community, especially the transgender community,” she said. “There were more guardrails last time: [Trump] didn’t have the House, Senate and judiciary. And he has Project 2025. I was concerned before, but now I’m really concerned.”

The fears that Trump may enact some of the policies laid out in Project 2025, such as stripping the terms “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” from “every piece of legislation that exists,” are widespread, said a dozen LGBTQ individuals TheWrap spoke to. Others are fearful that the Supreme Court may try to roll back the right to gay marriage. Many spoke of the fear of being targeted, particularly because they work in the high-profile entertainment business.

“This erasure isn’t symbolic — it’s part of a systematic effort to strip LGBTQI+ people of all legal protection from persecution, discrimination, and violence,” wrote Ma’ayan Anafi of the National Women’s Law Center in an explainer about the conservative manifesto.

It might not be too much to describe the current emotion in the trans community as panic. A poll in February — nine months before the election — showed that nearly half of all transgender people were considering leaving the country.

“I think there will be a much bigger exodus from America this time around, especially if Trump 2.0 is the disaster that it seems like it’s going to be,” predicted screenwriter Brent Hartinger, who left the country in 2017 after Trump was elected the first time.

Searches for leaving the country surged after the election

In the first 24 hours after Trump’s win, searches about how to move to Canada, Mexico, Ireland, New Zealand, or Portugal dominated Google’s Top 25 Searches.

Several of the people TheWrap spoke to have at least considered leaving the U.S., but not everyone has the financial wherewithal to pick up and start over in another country.

Rod Carrillo-Lundgren, a former television executive turned travel consultant, noticed a spike in traffic for his LGBTQ+ immigration resources following Trump’s election win. While each of his clients have different motivators for leaving the country, he has noticed a couple of central themes for the community.

“What I think is a unifying theme is that they’re not just thinking about it for themselves, they’re thinking about their loved ones and community,” Carillo-Lundgren told TheWrap. “A lot of people are either LGBTQ+ themselves or it’s their child or partner, and they have friends who are scared as well. They’re wanting to find a home where they can see a safe, inclusive future with possibilities.”

One gay couple who did emigrate, Hartinger and his husband Michael Jensen, who left the U.S. in 2017, have become “digital nomads,” spending 1 or 2 months in each country to work around visa limitations. Hartinger told TheWrap that in the week after the election, his blog about being a traveling ex-pat gained 1,000 new subscribers, and currently stands at 10,000.

How worried should people be?

Most of the gay men that TheWrap spoke with seemed to be adopting a “wait and see” approach, with the hope that a second Trump term wouldn’t be that bad. For one thing, there are a number of prominent gay members of the GOP, such as conservative Trump backer Peter Thiel and the president-elect’s Treasury Secretary pick, Scott Bessent, pointed out Gay Film Festival founder Marc Huestis.

“I don’t really think [Trump]’s that homophobic,” said Huestis, who was a friend of slain gay rights politician Harvey Milk and was known as the “Impresario of Castro Street” for his classic Hollywood programming at San Francisco’s Castro Theatre.

Writer and comedian Bruce Vilanch acknowledged “a certain level of hysteria” in L.A.’s LGBTQ community in a phone call with TheWrap. “I don’t think it’s as dire as they’re saying it is, but I understand,” he said.

A Hollywood publicist who spoke on condition of anonymity said he wasn’t sure whether the panic was justified or not. “I genuinely don’t have a sense of how real some of these risks are, and what might be hyperbole,” this person said, adding that they feel relatively safe in California. “That could be naïve,” he admitted.

“We naively feel that we can’t move backwards,” in regards to gay rights. “But we’ve seen how successfully they’ve rolled back women’s rights in ways that five years ago we could not have imagined.”

The trans community has more reason to worry

The same February poll by the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) that showed that nearly half of all transgender people were considering leaving the country, found that about 4,500 people, or 5% of the 92,000 people surveyed, said they had already moved because of anti-LGBTQ legislation.

“I don’t really feel that concerned about my rights,” said Huestis, who is gay. “I do really feel for trans people, because it’s going to be awful for them. I saw those anti-trans commercials, they were really effective, but disgusting. That tagline of ‘Trump is for you, Harris is for they/them,’ was probably the most effective line of the campaign.”

Deborah Zahal, who immigrated to the U.S. from Scotland 25 years ago, began to search for a safe haven for her transgender kid once whispers of Trump’s return to office started swirling in 2022. Seeking to protect her out and proud trans son Del, she investigated Portugal and Mexico as potential landing spots.

Del’s primary motivator for the move is the fear of becoming a target, and they are already careful. “I dress up like a clown to go to the mall,” Del, who identifies as gender-fluid, joked to TheWrap.

Though the 19-year-old understands that moving out of the U.S. could better protect their freedoms, Del is still wary of leaving queer friends behind.

Following Trump’s reelection in November, several corporations have expressed their financial support for the former president, including tech giants Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman and Mark Zuckerberg. Del said that this rhetoric and financial commitment has made them anxious to remain in the country.

“It’s terrifying,” Del said. “People that I thought were smarter than this are bowing down to some guy crowned as president… Honestly, it makes me question if I am the one in the wrong.”

Staying Put, to Fight

Still others who share the widespread anxiety in the LGBTQ community say they intend to stay put and fight.

Rob Epstein, the two-time Oscar-winning co-director of “The Times of Harvey Milk,” told TheWrap, “We stay, we tell stories, and we resist through our work. At least, that’s where I stand right now.”

Vilanch — legendary as a writer for Oscar hosts from Billy Crystal to Whoopi Goldberg and Jon Stewart — also plans to stay.

“I can’t speak for Hollywood as an industry, but for independent filmmakers like myself, this is how we live and breathe,” said Epstein. “Ellen DeGeneres might have the resources to relocate to another country, but most of us don’t have that kind of privilege — or, maybe not even the inclination.”

But others point out that the shift rightward is happening across the globe. So moving might not be the safe haven they imagine.

“What’s happening in America — the turn to fascism or at least illiberalism, the increased penchant for violence — is clearly happening in more places than just the U.S. There are no easy answers,” said Hartinger.

Still, leaving the U.S. was “the best decision of both our lives by far,” he said. “So far, we’ve lived at least a month in at least 30 different countries. and it’s been incredible.” He’s written a screenplay based on their nomadic travels.

Cox said she fears the same kind of gay bashing that occurred in Germany in the 1930s as the Nazis took power. “There was a thriving community of queer people in Berlin pre the rise of Nazism. They attacked Jewish folks. They attacked immigrants, they attacked queer and trans people,” she said.

While getting out of the U.S. might sound appealing, it’s more complicated than it sounds. Besides visas and being able to make a living, trans men and women also need continued access to health care and hormones.

And as other nations, including Germany and Japan, see a public shift to more conservative values as measured in a July survey by Statista, the options narrow.

“This is not an American problem. This is a world problem,” said actor and comedian Jason Stuart, referring to far-right leaders like Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni. Stuart, whose credits include Nate Parker’s “Birth of a Nation” and Sean Baker’s “Tangerine,” has considered moving to Canada, but said, “I’m not leaving. I love this country.”

Vilanch told TheWrap, “I’m not happy with the turn of events. Obviously, life goes on, but I’m not running off. I’m staying here and willing to do what’s necessary to maintain the other side.”

“It’s a privilege to live in this country, and we’re going to go through a really rough time in the next four years with Trump,” said Stuart. “But we have to wait it out. I would love that privilege to be able to go to another country, but that isn’t the opportunity for all of us.”

“I hope to one day come back to the U.S. if we do end up moving,” Del said. “I hope that this is just a weird hive mind, something’s in the air, I don’t know, but I hope it gets better eventually, and if it doesn’t, then we’ll find somewhere else.”

Sharon Waxman contributed to this story.

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