Danni Askini knew she had a dangerous job as the founder of a Gender Justice League, a transgender rights advocacy organization in Seattle, Washington. She’s a transgender woman and is used to occasional threats. But after she and others sued the Trump administration over its transgender military ban, the threats became constant and specific, Askini says. “People telling me that they were going to kill my mother,” she says. “Somebody had stalked and figured out my brother’s address, what bus stop he used, and where he worked, and threatened to kill my brother.” And then one day, when she was driving alone, a green truck with two men in it ran Askini off the road. “Basically they ran me into a guardrail,” she says. The men in the truck stopped, yelled specific threats about her being transgender, and drove off. She says police decided it was road rage and didn’t file a report. The Seattle Police Department didn’t respond for requests for confirmation or comment. Askini asked federal authorities for help — they had been responsive in the past and had even helped train her staff at Gender Justice League in security measures. “This is the first time where they declined to really help,” she says. At that point Askini and her family decided she needed to leave the country. But when she tried to renew her passport, she says officials told her that she had obtained it fraudulently because she didn’t provide documentation including her gender at birth. A State Department official says there has been no policy change in regard to transgender applicants, and, although they can’t comment on any individual’s application or circumstances, they are committed to treating all passport applicants fairly and with respect, including transgender individuals. Askini's congresswoman, Democrat Pramila Jayapal, intervened to get Askini a temporary passport. Askini went to Sweden, where her ex-husband lives. Six months later, she’s still there. Her Swedish visa is about to expire. And she can’t come back to the US. “I don’t have a US passport, I cannot leave the state of Sweden and I don’t have Swedish citizenship,” she says. Askini turned to international authorities for help, filing a human rights complaint with the United Nations. But the State Department won’t respond to the UN’s requests to investigate...
