This blog originally appeared at Kxan In-Depth Investigative.

This blog originally appeared at

by: Will DuPree– KXAN
Posted: Aug 8, 2022 / 04:24 PM CDT
Updated: Aug 11, 2022 / 04:33 PM CDT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — A for sale sign went up recently in front of the house that Lauren Rodriguez called her dream home. Even though she only moved in two years ago, her plan now is to sell it so that she and her family can not only leave the Austin area, but the country entirely.

“We’re definitely not staying in Texas,” Rodriguez said. “The goal is to hopefully leave the country, but I have to see if we can get that worked out. If not, we’ll try to go to a safer state, but it makes me nervous because I don’t know how long a state will be safe for.”

She credits the political climate in Texas and restrictions pursued by the state legislature related to the transgender community for cementing her decision to seek a life outside the U.S. She and her 18-year-old transgender son Greyson spent the 2019 and 2021 legislative sessions going to the Capitol multiple times to testify against bills like the one that ultimately passed last year requiring Texas public school athletes to play sports based on their biological sex at birth. At least 18 states have now approved legislation banning trans athletes from participating in sports, according to the LGBTQ advocacy organization Athlete Ally.

Flee Texas service

After hearing stories similar to Rodriguez’s, Bob McCranie, a gay Dallas-based realtor, created a new real estate service online called Flee Texas to help LGBTQ Texans. The website reads, “If you feel the need to leave the jurisdiction of Texas, let us help you sell your property here and connect you with an LGBTQIA or ally agent in a better location of your choice.”
“Almost every LGBTQ person I’m having dinner with or talking to or whatever has in the back of their mind, ‘What’s my plan B? How do I get out of here?’” McCranie said. “This is turning, and some of the people are responding, ‘Well, we should all just stay in fight.’ A lot of us have fought for — for me, 17 years. It’s just everybody’s thinking about, ‘Where do I go next?’”

Since the Flee Texas website went live, McCranie said it’s gotten at least 500 hits a month. However, no homes have been sold yet through this effort. He admits it’s perhaps too early for that now, but he said the upcoming legislative session or future Supreme Court cases may lead some to seek out assistance to find a new place to call home.

People recently expressed concerns about how the high court’s conservative majority might eventually rule on LGBTQ rights based on a separate opinion that Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in support of the reversal of Roe v. Wade. According to our news partners at The Hill, he called for the overturning of previous decisions based on that same precedent that created protections for access to contraception, same-sex intimacy and marriage equality.

“I’m an ambassador for Texas. I’m an ambassador for our cities to say, ‘Here’s a great place where you can live near parks, near whatever. Here’s a great house. Here’s all the excitement about being here,’” McCranie said. “I now have to shift that into: all this great stuff is tainted by the idea that you won’t be equal here. You may actually be threatened here, and your children may actually be taken away from you.”