Democrats planning move to UK after Trump re-election
Michelle Call and Brean Ryhter both want to move their families to the UK to escape a second term of a Trump administration.
Some Democrat voters in the United States have been looking to leave the country for the UK since Donald Trump’s re-election.
Michelle Call, 53, from Littleborough, Rochdale – who has been living in the US since 1998, hopes to return home to the UK with her family due to concerns about the political climate under Mr Trump.
Mrs Call, who has a transgender child, says that following the Republican president’s “two sexes” policy, she feels the US is not a safe place for her family.
Mr Trump, who was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on Monday, has already issued a number of executive orders that range from trade, immigration, US foreign aid and civil rights.
One of the orders includes the US government defining gender as only male or female – and rejecting a person’s preferred gender identity or pronouns.
“We lived through a Trump presidency before, and we fought and we protested,” Mrs Call told the PA news agency from her home in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
“That time, we felt like it was right to stay and fight, but this time, we feel like we need to leave because we have a transgender child.
“They’re 21 years old now, but they still live at home with us, and they’re dependent on us.”
Mrs Call described the two sexes policy as demoralising and worrying.
“It’s really hard to be here feeling that way, knowing that 50% of the people that I pass on the street think my child doesn’t have a right to exist,” she said.
Mrs Call and her husband Lewis, 57, who are both retired, plan to sell their home in Las Cruces and move to Littleborough, where she has several family members still living there.
Brean Ryhter, 45, from Seattle, Washington, also hopes to move her family to the UK to escape “another four years of crazy”.
Mrs Ryther says she has spent the last year trying to figure out how to move to the UK in the event that Mr Trump was re-elected.
Mrs Ryther, who has a non-binary daughter, says that since the inauguration their move feels even more urgent.
“There’s a lot of reasons why we all want to move,” she told PA.
“My daughter is non-binary and is part of the queer community, and she doesn’t want to be here anymore to get torn apart by any political actions that happen.
“Trump made everything very black and white and very polarised.”
Mrs Ryther and her husband Richard, 47, own an embroidery and custom clothing business and are looking into sole trader visas for the UK.
“I thought about political asylum. I thought about giving up my citizenship, because honestly, I’m not attached to it,” said Mrs Ryther.
“I’ve been saying for a year to all of my family, if he is president, we have to figure out how to get out of here.
“We can’t do another four years of crazy.”
