LEAVING THEIR HOME

A new law in Kansas is forcing trans people to reconsider their futures there

- BY REBECCA SCHNEID The Brief includes reporting by Chantelle Lee

ANTHONY ALVAREZ LOVES KANSAS. HE MOVED there when he was 11, and now “every single person he cares about” and loves is in the Sunflower State, he tells TIME. But lately, Alvarez says, he and his friends are thinking of leaving. Alvarez, a 22-year-old who will graduate from the University of Kansas this spring, came out as trans six years ago, and says the average Kansan has never bothered him about his gender. On campus, he walks into the men’s restroom without hesitation—just another student moving through his day. That calculus is changing, he says. Kansas Republicans in late February overrode the veto of Democratic Governor Laura Kelly to pass one of the most restrictive laws in the country for transgender residents, imposing new limits on bathroom access and identification. “I want to give my skills to Kansas. I want to live in the place I’ve called home for so long, but I can’t stay in a place that is going to be outwardly hostile to me,” Alvarez says.