Minnesota
A year after Minnesota became a trans refuge, ‘transplants’ make themselves at home
When bills to ban gender-affirming care for youth and adults were introduced in Texas last summer, Charley and his partner knew it was time to leave.
His move to Minnesota didn’t feel like moving in the traditional sense. It felt like fleeing.
“It was pretty clear that if that didn’t pass something else would,” said Charley, who is transgender. “We just needed to get out.”
Even the mere introduction of legislation caused some medical providers in Texas to preemptively cease offering care.
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MPR News agreed to identify Charley by first name only because he works as a graduate student at a university in Texas and fears possible workplace repercussions while completing his studies.
The couple put a list together of all the states that had passed protections for LGBTQ+ people. Then they looked at each state’s cost of living and different employment opportunities. Minnesota came out on top.
Just over a year ago, Minnesota became a legal refuge for transgender people after the Legislature passed a law cementing protections for trans people and those who offer gender-affirming care.
The move was aimed at countering efforts by dozens of conservative-led states that restricted access to care or banned it all together.
KFF, an independent health care policy tracking organization, reports that 24 states have limited access to the services for minors and 22 impose penalties for physicians that provide it. In the Midwest, Minnesota became an island for gender-affirming care. Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota have enacted bans on care for youth.
The bans have spurred people like Charley to uproot their lives and move to Minnesota. And he’s not alone.
“This is a wonderful place to live. I’ve never felt like I could be more myself,” Charley said about Minnesota.
Nicole Neri for MPR News
Between July 2023 and March 2024, the pro-LGBTQ+ group called PFund said 231 people filled out a survey indicating that they have moved or are in the process of moving to Minnesota. But PFund notes that the number is likely higher.
Executive Director Aaron Zimmerman said it’s not easy to gather data at a large scale in this space. Some families and people moving to Minnesota for care might not need resources, ask for community support or seek out PFund as a resource.
Democrats who put forward and passed the legal changes in St. Paul said the numbers show the law has worked in bringing more people to Minnesota. But now, they say, the state needs to do more to offer communities for those who make the move.
Conservatives, meanwhile, said the step went too far and has tarnished the state’s reputation.
Demand for services grows
This increase in trans people and families in the state has caused a strain on the healthcare system and the providers that treat them. Children’s Minnesota saw a 30 percent increase in calls to the Gender Health Program in early 2023 as surrounding states began to ban gender-affirming care.
Before the Trans Refuge Law was passed, the waiting list for the Gender Health Program was over a year long. Dr. Angela Kade Goepferd, the program’s executive director, has only watched it grow.
“Our arms are already incredibly full,” Goepferd said earlier this year. “Our team at Children’s Minnesota and our colleagues in the Twin Cities who specialize in this essential health care are outmatched by the demand.”
Children’s Minnesota has hired two new clinicians as a part of the Gender Health Program to keep up with demand. The clinic now has six doctors. While interviewing candidates, at least half of the candidates were medical or mental health professionals looking to relocate to Minnesota from states where gender-affirming care bans for youth were in place.
Dr. Angela Goepferd is the executive director for Children’s Minnesota Gender Health Program.
Kerem Yücel | MPR News
“With essential health care for trans and gender diverse kids, nothing’s new,” Goepferd said. “We’ve been providing this care for decades, we’ve been using the same medications for decades, we’ve been following international guidelines that are now in their eighth revision and initially came out in the ‘70s. So this is not new care. The only thing that’s new about it is the controversy.”
Goepferd said misinformation surrounding gender-affirming care has been harmful and confusing for families with transgender youth. Transgender youth who are the targets of violence or harassment experience a negative impact on their mental health. The current political landscape has also made it more difficult for doctors like Goepfered to do their jobs.
“These are kids and families that are coming to us experiencing trauma,” Goepferd said. “We as a health care team are also experiencing trauma because we are personally targeted at times … we are a healthcare team that’s under stress, treating patients and families that are under stress and trauma.”
Gopeferd said the hope is that state lawmakers will pass funding to provide more resources for physicians and providers delivering care to transgender youth and adults.
‘Minnesota Transplants’ takes off
As Charley’s moving truck pulled up to his new home in St. Louis Park last August, he felt instant relief.
“It was really good to pull the Penske up into our neighborhood and already see the progress flags. That’s not something that I saw a lot in Texas, at least not in a suburban area,” he said. “Then just the feeling that winter was coming and the temperature was dropping. I got really excited because it was confirmation that I wasn’t in Texas anymore.”
His second emotion that would plague the next few months in his new home: loneliness.
“It felt like my partner and I were on our own little island,” Charley said. “There’s this whole community around us that we just sort of crash landed into, which was a really weird feeling.”
He began looking on local social media pages to try and find a social group to join. But there wasn’t a group in the Twin Cities dedicated to trans individuals who had moved to Minnesota.
So in January, Charley made his own. The Minnesota Transplants group offers a social network for new Minnesotans who are fleeing states that banned gender-affirming care — members of the group help each other move into their new homes and organize outings to explore their new city.
In four months, the group has grown to 40 members. They come from all over the country — many from Texas and Florida, Iowa and Wisconsin, even some from Alaska.
“Part of the goal of the group is to get people some kind of social life when they get here,” he said. “The shared understanding that we all have to be there for each other has been overwhelming, in a positive way.”
A new Capitol push
Rep. Leigh Finke, DFL-St. Paul, is the first openly trans lawmaker in the Minnesota Legislature and drove the trans refuge bill in the 2023 session. She is proud of the strides taken last year.
“So what we have done in Minnesota to make moves towards protection has really resounded,” Finke said. “Many people have come, organizations have built coalition’s around how we are going to support the community that’s already here, and the community that’s coming.”
But, Finke said, lawmakers have work left to do this year.
She said lawmakers should approve grant funding to help LGBTQ+ people and gender care providers relocate to Minnesota, along with other policy changes.
Rep. Leigh Finke, DFL-St. Paul, speaks at a rally at the Minnesota Capitol on Feb. 27. She says just because the trans refuge bill was passed, that doesn’t mean the work is done surrounding trans rights in Minnesota.
Dana Ferguson | MPR News
She’s also backing a constitutional equal rights amendment that guarantees access to gender affirming care and a bill that would mandate that insurance companies cover the cost, as well as a bill that would prohibit school boards or local governments from banning the display of rainbow flags.
“We can’t just pass the trans refuge bill and then think that we’re done,” Finke said. “We need to expand health care options, we need to make our schools safer, we need to do so much work to protect those people.”
While DFL majorities at the Capitol have advanced those proposals, they could be stymied by the arrest of Sen. Nicole Mitchell. Democrats hold a one-vote lead in the Senate and the policies could stall out if she resigns or is somehow barred from voting.
Conservative groups and Republicans at the Capitol have raised concerns about the policy change and the efforts to brand Minnesota a destination state for gender-affirming care.
“Forcing all insurers to pay for this is misguided and forcing all taxpayers to pay for so-called gender-affirming care is coercion,” said Rebecca Delahunt of Minnesota Family Council. “Children cannot give informed consent on treatment that alters or potentially changes their reproductive health.”
GOP lawmakers said they worry about how people elsewhere would perceive Minnesota after passing the trans refuge law and protections for those seeking abortions.
Rep. Matt Grossell, R-Clearbrook, is one of the GOP lawmakers who say worry about how others view Minnesota.
Monika Lawrence for MPR News
“I’m very saddened by what has been going on in our state Legislature here as of late turning Minnesota into a destination state for death or mutilation,” Rep. Matt Grossell, R-Clearbrook, said. “That is not the that is not the kind of reputation you want.”
While those comments or concerns permeate the national dialogue around gender-affirming care for transgender and gender diverse people, they don’t square with reality, physicians said.
Major medical associations support gender-affirming care and note it improves mental health outcomes in the short and long term. Providers also note that only in rare instances do transgender people under age 18 qualify for surgical treatments.
Settled in
Charley has lived in Minnesota for less than a year, but he already knows he wants to stay.
“This is a wonderful place to live. I’ve never felt like I could be more myself,” Charley said.
Charley has been talking with people across the country who want to form Transplants chapters in other states that have enacted laws similar to Minnesota’s trans refuge law. He wants to help create a blueprint for new chapters.
Colorado, Illinois, Maryland and New Mexico have all passed bills designed to shield transgender health care through legal protections, health care coverage and access.
He hopes one day there will be enough resources available for transgender people moving to Minnesota that the Transplants group does not have to exist.
Until then, he said the Transplants group will be ready to welcome them with open arms.
Minnesota
Minnesota colleges expand cannabis studies programs to build labor force in budding industry
Minnesota State Community and Technical College, or M State, which has schools across Northwest Minnesota, will also be expanding their offerings. M State was the first two-year college in greater Minnesota to offer cannabis education. So both schools are partnering with the company Green Flower to offer the courses. So joining me now to learn more about this is the CEO of Green Flower, Max Simon. Hi, Max.
MAX SIMON: Hi there.
NINA MOINI: Thank you for being here. Also very happy to have Sean Collins, who’s the director of Workforce Development Solutions at M State. Thanks so much for your time this afternoon, Sean.
SEAN COLLINS: Yeah, great to be here.
NINA MOINI: Max, I wanted to start with you, if I could. Would you tell us a little bit about Green Flower and the types of courses you offer?
MAX SIMON: Yeah, Green Flower is a decade old cannabis education leader. And we develop programs that help people enter the different sectors of the cannabis industry, because there’s all these different places where people can play a role and need dedicated training to be able to enter the industry.
NINA MOINI: Yeah, tell me a little bit about– I see there are five pathways here, because people are probably like, what am I exactly studying? Tell me what those are.
MAX SIMON: Yeah, the cannabis industry is a lot more complex and interesting than most people realize. Yeah, these five sectors. There’s cultivation, which is growing plants in the ground. There’s a product development sector, where you’re actually taking products from the plant material and making them into edibles, and topicals, and medical products.
There’s a retail and sales program, which is all about the customer-facing and sales-facing side of the industry. There’s a medical cannabis program because at least 50% of the people that are coming to cannabis today are coming from medical and health and wellness reasons. And then there’s a compliance program, because it’s a very heavily regulated industry. And every cannabis company on Earth requires a compliance expert to navigate the challenges of running a legal industry.
NINA MOINI: Wow, that’s fascinating. Sean, why was this something that you wanted to offer at M State. Is there a lot of interest?
SEAN COLLINS: Yes, there has been a lot of interest. And M State really wanted to offer this program because it is an emerging industry. But similar to industries like the alcohol industry, there’s a lot of compliance that needs to happen, a lot of legal things that need to be followed.
And so since cannabis is legalized and here to stay, we wanted to be the organization that can actually provide that solid training for the workforce. So that they can go in and be confident in their jobs, and also do this legally and follow all the regulations that are needed.
NINA MOINI: Yeah, I’m hearing so much about regulations from both of you guys and all the nuances of the industry. And I wonder, Max, if that’s why people can’t just take, I guess, regular business classes? Or do you think that’s part of it?
MAX SIMON: Definitely a part of it. There’s a lot of stigma related to cannabis and a lot of misinformation. But when you get down to the science, the business, the compliance, the operations, it’s a very complex industry.
It really is heavily regulated. It’s a difficult plant to grow. It’s a difficult substance to work with in product development. And such a huge variety of different people come to cannabis for so many different reasons. And so this is why this specialized training is so important, because to work in this industry, you really need to understand the industry.
NINA MOINI: And to your point there, does that impact who is teaching the courses?
MAX SIMON: Absolutely. So all of these programs are literally taught by people that are operating businesses and working inside of the industry. We realized that we couldn’t have theoretical teachers or people that were just looking at it from the outside. You needed people that were there doing this work on the inside. So every program is actually facilitated by these instructors who come from the cannabis industry and are operating in it in a daily basis.
NINA MOINI: And I wonder, Max, if from when you said you started 10 years ago with these efforts, what has that evolution been like? What a 10 years.
MAX SIMON: I mean, the amount of acceptance, adoption, legalization, and progress that cannabis has had over the last decade is literally staggering. And to see now that this is something that’s so commonly accepted, that’s so widely used, and that is growing so quickly, it’s a fun thing to be a part of today.
NINA MOINI: Sean, why do you think this appeals to students there in greater Minnesota, too?
SEAN COLLINS: I think a lot of it has to do with the younger generation that has grown up with cannabis being more in the public eye. So the subject has been a lot more open to the public eye. As he mentioned, there is a bit of a stigma with cannabis. But we do think the younger generations don’t have that same stigma.
And so being able to provide this training to these younger generations to get into the field, and especially into a field that is growing and is actually paying good wages, that’s really important to us. And so, yeah, it’s been a great partnership with Green Flower. They provide fantastic training. And we love working with them and providing actual good, solid training that is getting people jobs as soon as they complete these courses.
NINA MOINI: Yeah, and Sean, tell me a little bit, if you would, about this idea of the certification. Because we know that some trends show in higher education enrollment struggles in different areas. But this isn’t as huge of a commitment in time. Tell me about this idea of the industry certification.
SEAN COLLINS: Yeah, so we are seeing a bit of a trend away from four year degrees. That’s why community and technical colleges like M State are actually seeing an uptick in enrollment for some of these more hands-on things, two-year programs.
But then on the other side, outside of the credit side of the school, on the non-credit side, which is my side of the house, we’re seeing a lot of people that are just trying to get into valuable industries quickly. And so industry recognized certifications are very, very important in that.
And so by a student attending these courses and having the certification, they can go to an employer and say, hey, I am already trained and come off– come out of there with a good job offer and the requisite skills needed to do that job. The fact that it’s an accelerated course really, really helps out also with the growth of the industry, because the industry is not waiting for someone to get a two-year degree just to enter the industry.
NINA MOINI: Fascinating. Just before we have to go, I did want to ask you about this, Max. Last month, the President Donald Trump, set in a motion and a process to move marijuana from a Schedule I drug, which includes, like heroin, LSD to Schedule III drug, which, again, puts it in a lower risk category for folks who don’t know. What impact do you think this will have on your company and schools that want to offer this type of education program?
MAX SIMON: Yeah, it has a huge impact because it really signals that this is an industry and a substance that isn’t as scary as we once thought it was. But it also creates a much more friendly regulatory environment for companies to be able to grow.
It creates a lot more access for research. And it really sends a loud signal that this is something that we should look at as a more favorable, and positive, and beneficial substance to society, whereas historically, it’s only been looked at and treated as something that’s bad for you.
NINA MOINI: And Max, do you think there ever would be like a two-year or a four-year degree type of program for people who are interested in that?
MAX SIMON: I do. But I also– these programs are only 16 weeks long. And we find that people that are looking to just get into the industry, and get jobs, and switch their careers, really love this short form credential. And so I think that these shorter certificate programs really work well to serve the industry as it is today.
NINA MOINI: One more question for you, Sean. Do you feel like there are jobs out there for people who go through this 16 weeks? Is it like, oh, boom, I’m going to get a job right away?
SEAN COLLINS: In fact, I actually had a former employee at my previous employer who left our employer to go take one of these courses. And he was hired pretty much immediately after completing the course. He did the retail specialist side. And he was hired by a dispensary here in town pretty much immediately. And he was actually making– he came from an IT position. And he was actually making a wage that was equivalent to that position he left.
NINA MOINI: Wow lots developing, lots growing there. [LAUGHS] Thank you both so much for your time and for coming by Minnesota Now. We hope you’ll come back sometime.
[PHONE RINGS]
Oh, looks like you got to take a call. All right, thanks to both of our guests, Sean Collins, the director of Workforce Development Solutions at M State, and Max Simon, the CEO of the cannabis education program Green Flower.
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Minnesota
Over 1,000 arrested in ‘massive’ Minnesota operation, including murderers, rapists, pedophiles
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Federal authorities have arrested more than 1,000 in Minnesota, including alleged murderers, rapists, pedophiles and gang members, after sending a surge of agents to the state in its “massive” response to the rampant fraud still being uncovered.
Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital that since the agency “surged law enforcement” to Minnesota last week, it “has already made more than 1,000 arrests of murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and gang members.”
DHS said that among those arrested was a Somali criminal illegal alien named Liban Ali Osman, 43, who the agency said was convicted of robbery in Columbus, Ohio. Osman was sentenced to three years in prison and has had a final order of removal since May 17, 2011.
Another, Vannaleut Keomany, a 59-year-old criminal illegal alien from Laos, arrested in the crackdown, was convicted of two counts of rape, also in Columbus. DHS said Keomany was sentenced to seven years in prison and has had a final order of removal since Dec. 17, 2009.
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Homeland Security investigators were part of a large fraud investigation on Monday in Minneapolis following the release of a video on alleged day care fraud. (Department of Homeland Security)
Federal agents also arrested another Laotian, Por Moua, 50, during the operation. Moua has convictions for first-degree great bodily harm, sexual intercourse with a child in California, and false imprisonment.
A third Laotian, Sing Radsmikham, 52, was arrested in the operation and has been convicted of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct using force or coercion in Roseau County, Minnesota. He has had a final order of removal since 2004.
Tou Vang, a 42-year-old from Laos, was arrested and has been convicted of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a child under 13. Vang has had a final order of removal since 2006.
Somvang Phrachansiry, a 63-year-old from Laos, was arrested. He has been convicted of third-degree criminal sexual conduct and second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and has had a final order of removal since 2001.
Javier Bulmaro Turrubiartes, a 49-year-old criminal alien from Mexico, was arrested in Minnesota. Turrubiartes has previously been arrested for soliciting children through electronic communication to engage in sexual conduct and convicted of hiring or agreeing to hire a child under 16 for prostitution.
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Left to right from top: Ban Du La Sein, Vannaleut Keomany, Sing Radsmikham, Liban Ali Osman, Tou Vang, Por Moua, Javier Bulmaro Turrubiartes, Somvang Phrachansiry, Angel Edwin Quiquintuna Capuz and Joel Cuautle-Ocelotl. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images; DHS)
Another illegal from Mexico, Joel Cuautle-Ocelotl, 51, was nabbed in the roundup. He has been convicted of third-degree assault with intent to cause physical injury in New York and driving while impaired in Minnesota.
Ban Du La Sein, a 47-year-old from Burma who has been convicted of third-degree criminal sexual conduct using force or coercion in Nobles County, Minnesota, was also arrested.
Angel Edwin Quiquintuna Capuz, a 26-year-old from Ecuador, was arrested by federal agents. Capuz has previously been convicted of robbery in Columbus and been arrested for driving while intoxicated, assaulting a police officer, obstructing the legal process and disarming a peace officer.
DHS surged roughly 2,000 federal agents and officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s deportation branch and Homeland Security Investigations, according to CBS News. The outlet reported the operation will be a 30-day surge in the Twin Cities area. It also said that U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commander Gregory Bovino will help oversee the operation.
McLaughlin said that “while for the safety of our officers we do not get into law enforcement footprint,” she confirmed that “DHS has surged law enforcement” to the Twin Cities area.
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Agents with the Department of Homeland Security in a Minneapolis store. The agency said it had launched an operation to identify, arrest and remove criminals who are suspected of fraud. (Department of Homeland Security)
Minnesota has come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks after authorities revealed multimillion-dollar fraud operations in the state, resulting in dozens of arrests and indictments.
Last week, Homeland Security announced it was launching a “massive operation” in Minnesota to “identify, arrest, and remove criminals who are defrauding the American people.”
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The announcement came after the release of a video by an independent journalist who questioned daycare center operators in the area.
In an X post, the agency vowed to “root out this rampant fraud plaguing Minnesota.”
Fox News Digital’s Luis Casiano contributed to this report.
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