Sorry Lilacwoman, but I had to chuckle when I read your posting.  I live in the midst of the Bible belt and many, many people here believe that the UN is a communist organization hell bent on destroying Capitalism, Christianity and The GOD BLESSED U.S.A. while pursuing a homosexual agenda.  Not necessarily in that order.  A local politician got the Tampa library to remove a completely inoffensive gay display that included books written by or about gays, because it "promoted a gay agenda."  If he isn't living in a few parts of America, he has no rights.  Except to shut up and do "what we tell you." (que the banjos) 

Quote from: lilacwoman on December 10, 2010, 08:02:50 AMThe United Nations declaration that USA signed up to has as it's first principle  'the right to self determination'   - that must be interpreted as meaning you have the absolute right to determine that you will be seen as male.  logically it follows that the USA must put in place such laws and practices that allow you to do this.

Yet it's not enforced- not even on the state level. In my state transpeople have no protection or special rights. Some cities here enacted protection but if I read it right it's only if your these cities' employees. My city doesn't have this protection. Here we can be fired legally for being trans. There is no hate crime protection here.

Cindy is completely right. The majority of the U.S. is like this. I'm sorry, but the U.S. sucks. The "American Dream" is an illusion. I need to move to another country. Any advice on how to do that?

Yeah, it's really easy.  All you have to do is get to a foreign county, go to the US Embassy there, turn in your passport and tell them that you want to renounce your US citizenship.  That's it.

Hard part is going to be finding a country that is going to let you immigrate.  And, pretty much once you get outside of the 1st World, life gets crappy and cheep in a hurry.  I take it that you're not thinking of going to Mongolia or Ethiopia or the Congo, but NO ONE who has grown up in the US can even begin to picture what day to day life is like in the Third World.  Most of those countries don't even have a word for tolerance.

Unless you have special skills, it's hard to get into Europe, New Zealand, Canada or Australia.  And forget Japan, if you're not Japanese they make no secret about not wanting you.  You can go there to work, and they like that, but citizenship is all but impossible.  You can get a permanent resident status after 10 years or so, but that's not the same thing.

Among the hardest places are Germany, Israel if you're not Jewish, Switzerland (12 years and then you have to go in front of a committee that has the power to deny you citizenship if they don't like you.)

OK, first, I'm going to assume you are white.  If you are not then this is a whole different deal.  And if you don't have at least a BA from a regular school (as opposed to some bible college) forget it.

Join their army.  It's the time honored way.
Marry someone in that country. 
Do you have specific skills that are needed in that country?
Even better, a job  - this is the BEST way to go, that way the company does the immigration stuff for you, but you have to have real mad prop skills at something they really need before they are going to pay you to move halfway around the world and go through all that.
Do you have enough money to support yourself without working? - lots of places are going to insist that you have X amount of money.

Almost all countries have both health and character qualifications on top of that.  And by health, I mean the most invasive physical exam you're ever going to get by a doctor of their (not your) choosing.  I would think that just about 80-90% of the 120 or so different nations would exclude trans persons just on that basis alone.  So your left with something between 10 to 20 realistic choices.

And ignoring UN declarations is pretty much a world-wide hobby.

Quote from: Cindy Stephens on December 10, 2010, 09:37:56 AM
... many people here believe that the UN is a communist organization hell bent on destroying Capitalism, Christianity and The GOD BLESSED U.S.A. while pursuing a homosexual agenda.

Ooooh.... Where can I sign up?

Any office of the Democratic Party if you ask them.

Actually, the US has a rich history of people banding together and establishing their own communities.  From the Shakers, Amish, Unida (and other socialist orgs), Muslim Brotherhood.  Check out communitarianism and co-housing orgs.  I have always wanted to work something like that.  The Vietnamese who came here brought a system of self-help where an established group would raise you up, (after proving your ability and desire to work hard) and then expect you to join the group and contribute so that others can establish their businesses.  Did you think it was a accident that 100,000 nail shops opened with Vietnamese ownership?  A family from India, the Patels,  have parlayed meager beginnings into a huge motel/hotel empire by using family for employees/owners.  If you have money, you have power.  If you have power, you have freedom.   Get money.

Quote from: Radar on December 10, 2010, 11:04:04 AM
Yet it's not enforced- not even on the state level. In my state transpeople have no protection or special rights. Some cities here enacted protection but if I read it right it's only if your these cities' employees. My city doesn't have this protection. Here we can be fired legally for being trans. There is no hate crime protection here.

Cindy is completely right. The majority of the U.S. is like this. I'm sorry, but the U.S. sucks. The "American Dream" is an illusion. I need to move to another country. Any advice on how to do that?

Goes MUCH deeper.   It is WORLD-WIDE.  U.S.A. is the leading-edge of it.   

Ralph Nader killed the Corvair so why don't transsexuals have any rights?