{"id":112541,"date":"2026-08-09T19:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T19:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/112541\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T19:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T19:56:10","slug":"transgender-american-who-fled-us-admits-it-was-the-dumbest-thing-as-returns-home-from-european-asylum-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/112541\/","title":{"rendered":"Transgender American who fled US admits it was ‘the dumbest thing’ as returns home from European asylum center"},"content":{"rendered":"

A transgender American who fled the US in a huff at President Trump\u2019s reelection has been forced to return home to escape a notorious European asylum center \u2014 admitting that leaving was \u201cthe dumbest thing I\u2019ve ever done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Software engineer Jane-Michelle Arc, 48, returned home to CAlifornia after failing to win asylum in the Netherlands \u2014 and discovering life in the notorious Ter Apel refugee camp was far more terrifying than anything under Trump\u2019s America.<\/p>\n

Before returning, Arc gave numerous interviews decrying the conditions at the camp \u2014 specifically referring to anti-trans hostility from other asylum seekers, most from Syria, Eritrea, Somalia, Turkey, Algeria and Morocco.<\/p>\n

\"Jane-MichelleJane-Michelle Arc, 48, a transgender American refugee, appeared on Dutch TV begging for help last month. PowNews\/Youtube<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the dumbest thing I\u2019ve ever done,\u201d Arc previously admitted to the Guardian<\/a> of the \u201cWildly stupid\u201d decision to flee.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hear a lot of people saying: \u2018You are an idiot. You came here from America.\u2019 People will tell me: \u2018Did you think about moving to California?\u2019 And then I say: \u2018Well, I lived in San Francisco\u2019 and then they go: \u2018Oh, that\u2019s a heaven for gay people,’\u201d Arc admitted,<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation I have in the US as a trans person, not good, right? But here, I will be hurt or killed,\u201d Arc\u00a0separately told Dutch outlet Pow News<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n

The area around the camp, the largest in the Netherlands, was declared a safety risk zone following a series of stabbings and fights, according to a letter from the Dutch government reported by NL Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is too dangerous to walk to the grocery store because of the people that live in the camp,\u201d Arc previously conceded. \u201cYou see these guys in yellow vests, they actually wear them because there are so many stabbings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arc\u2019s social media also marked optimism at a new life dramatically shifting to despair at reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis place is f\u2013king dire,\u201d Arc wrote in one post under the name Max Toegang, recalling in another being told to \u201cbe careful who I hang out with and where I go\u201d following \u201csideways looks from Muslims.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arc returned to the US last month \u2014 but quickly went back to complaining.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica is really, really loud and overwhelming. And everything is so expensive,\u201d Arc wrote in a post shortly after returning to the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Dutch complain about groceries being expensive, but good grief, San Francisco is a whole different experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jane-MichelleArc fled to Europe after Trump was re-elected in 2024, saying that she feared for her safety as a trans woman in America. druivenheks.substack<\/p>\n

In a separate post last month, Arc admitted how much more \u201ccomfortable\u201d the US is, but still complained that the \u201ctransphobia is quite overt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the trans exile admitted that before leaving<\/p>\n

\u201cI did it because I was afraid for my life. I didn\u2019t do this in secret. I talked to everybody I knew. I said, \u2018I am planning to do this wildly stupid thing,’\u201d Arc previously told the Guardian.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody said, \u2018I don\u2019t love this for you, but there is no other option,’\u201d Arc added.<\/p>\n

While the estimated number of transgender individuals who have left the US to claim asylum since Trump\u2019s reelection isn\u2019t known, hundreds of thousands claim to want to move to friendly states.<\/p>\n

Nearly half of transgender adults in the US have relocated or are planning to relocate to another state, according to a May 2025\u00a0report by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A transgender American who fled the US in a huff at President Trump\u2019s reelection has been forced to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[193,66,15,97,373,26,25648,3141],"class_list":["post-112541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-europe","tag-asylum","tag-donald-trump","tag-european","tag-immigration","tag-islam","tag-netherlands","tag-transgender","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}