California Goat Rush

Hi, I'm Shepherd. If you know me, it's probably from Twitter. 3 years ago I got out of an abusive marriage and moved here to North Carolina where I hoped I could stay, but I'm a queer trans man and in the past year the GOP has made trans people their new culture war.

At first I thought I'd be OK. Democrats controlled the North Carolina state supreme court, House of Representatives (with a margin just big enough to protect gubernatorial vetos), and we have a Democratic governor. Then last fall we lost the state supreme court to a 5-2 GOP majority and they decided they'd go back to some cases that had already been decided and change some verdicts, starting with one on gerrymandering and voter ID. This was bad, but still gave me until fall 2024 to save up and get out.

Then this month Tricia Cotham, the representative from a Democratic district, flipped parties to the GOP. We went from being able to protect the governor's veto by one vote to the GOP being able to override it by one vote. The first thing they did was introduce anti-transgender legislation that had previously failed.

I'm out of time.

Luckily I have a place to go: the great folks at Angeles Crest Creamery have offered me and my mixed flock of sheep and goats a place with them in California. Now I just have to get there. The move is scheduled for mid-September. I can cover some of the costs from my savings but I'm not gonna lie, it's expensive to haul animals cross-country. Still, I'm unwilling to leave the flock behind. Most of them have been with me their entire lives at this point and we got out of my abusive marriage together.

If you're able and willing to help, I'm deeply grateful. All I want at this point is a safe place to graze my flock and be at peace without worrying that I'll wake up and find that my health care has been made illegal and the state is forcibly detransitioning me.