Conflicting advice about anti-trans travel policies led Canadian artist Bells Larsen to cancel a pivotal tour.
heard that the United States would be accepting only visas with gender markers that matched applicants’ assigned sex at birth, he felt his stomach drop. Earlier this month, he was preparing to tour the U.
S. in June after the release of his sophomore album,might mean for him if he visited the country. Suddenly, in light of new anti-trans policies, it seemed like there was no hope of playing the shows he’d booked. Just a week before he got this news, the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada, the union that handles U.S. visas for Canadian musicians, told Larsen he should be fine as long as the gender markers on his passport and visa application matched. They did — they both bear an “M.” But on April 2, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services updated its policies to “match a person’s assigned sex at birth in order to avoid delays. As a result, on April 8, the day Larsen was supposed to drop off his application and pay a $5,000 fee, the AFM sent a follow-up email to him saying it couldn’t accept his passport. “We are only able to submit to USCIS identification with the same gender marker as was assigned at the time of one’s birth,” the email read. The Montreal-based musician was left reeling: “Does this mean I can’t apply for a visa anymore? Does this mean I can’t even enter the States?” Larsen also worried the nature of his music could interfere with getting through Customs. “If someone is passively listening, it’ll just sound like a guy and a girl singing together. But actually, whoa, it’s both me,” he said. “It’s my naked body on the cover. My identity is woven into this project.” Based on what he knew, he decided he couldn’t move forward with his travel plans.on Instagram almost immediately after he received the AFM’s email. “To put it super-plainly, because I’m trans , I can’t tour in the States,” Larsen wrote. “I hesitate to include a ‘right now’ or an ‘anymore’ at the end of my previous sentence, because — in this sociopolitical climate — I truly don’t know which phrasing holds more truth.” News outlets But the advice Larsen received wasn’t necessarily in line with the specifics of the April 2 policy. In the wake of such confusing, transphobic policies, people are often left to roll the dice and make their own choices based on whatever information is available — which is often rapidly changing. For now, the new policies don’t say outright that they’ll deny applicants without matching gender markers on their documents. Instead, they open the door to increased surveillance of trans people, according to lawyer Lee Clark. Clark, who is trans, is an arts immigration attorney at CoveyLaw in New York City, where he works with clients seeking visas. In terms of how the updated rules might really affect visas, Clark said, “This is a tedious and boring process for trans and nonbinary people. It’s a question of,Clark finds it out of step with the new policies that AFM wouldn’t submit Larsen’s artist visa unless the markers on his documents matched his assigned sex at birth. The updated language states that the USCIS won’t explicitly deny people entry into the U.S. on those grounds but instead, that mismatching documents could potentially lead to delays or documents that deny people’s true gender identities. A spokesperson for the AFM toldthat it is “not warning trans musicians against applying for U.S. touring visas entirely. Instead, asked trans musicians to contact the union directly for assistance to know what is possible given their individual situations.” (Update: The AFM says it “assesses and advises on each applicant individually, most specifically those whom are impacted by this USCIS policy. As with many current anti-trans policies, the chaos and uncertainty that has ensued for trans people are intentional. Fear can preclude many trans people from even attempting what should be normal activities, like travel. In the wake of Larsen’s statement, some trans artists canceled their shows in the U.S. out of support — and out of their own worries about what might happen if they tried to play Stateside. T. Thomason pulled out of a festival the same day Larsen canceled his tour, according toLarsen said he wishes his new album didn’t have to be a soundtrack to the “larger catastrophes” going on. “My heart is breaking 100 times a day — and I’m on testosterone, I’m not supposed to cry this much,” he joked. Larsen didn’t think of, a collection of Adrienne Lenker–like folk songs, as particularly political when he wrote it. “I’m singing about what it means to be in a long-distance relationship, to be a brother and have a brother, about friendship,” he said. His lyrics also chronicle going through a second puberty in your mid-20s and questioning what a healthy masculinity looks like. “Of course, I hear an inherent politicization in them now,” he said. Navigating uncertainty and backlash has, unfortunately, been part of being trans since long before Trump took office. In the weeks since his announcement,has pointed out that he didn’t “decide” or get “cautioned” to not tour — he was told by the union coordinating the process with him that he couldn’t. And new rules for trans people around travel are still broadly in flux: Just three days ago, a U.S. district judge Larsen is disappointed about canceling his shows, but he’s not letting it undermine his convictions. “I would like people to know that, no matter what, our community cannot be erased,” Larsen said. “It doesn’t matter what the legislature says. 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