Americas first-ever diplomat to come out as transgender has come to terms with the fact that she may never return to the United States.As the 2024 presidential election ramped up, 71-year-old Robyn McCutcheon saw the writing on the wall. The retired U.S. Foreign Service Officer applied for permanent residency in Kazakhstan, where she had served for many years and still had friends. Related Under Trump, federal workplace anti-discrimination agency engaged in workplace discrimination Then she watched Donald Trump declare on day one of his presidency that the official policy of the United States government [is] that there are only two genders: male and female. A few months later, she bought an apartment just outside Astana, Kazakhstans capital city. I think Ive lost my country, McCutcheon told The New York Times, recalling the thoughts that swarmed as she watched the presidential inauguration. This is not the America I thought I had represented or that I grew up in. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today McCutcheon did not come out to State Department colleagues until she was in her fifties. The courage it took cannot be exaggerated. There was no precedent for a transgender diplomat, no way to know how anyone would react or if she could even keep her job.In fact, when rumors of her identity began to swirl, she lost an assignment in Moscow. Her superiors felt information on her gender identity (which was available in her recent divorce filings) would make her vulnerable to Russian blackmail. But in 2010, while stationed in Romania, she learned that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had added gender identity to the State Department nondiscrimination policy. So she decided it was time to be herself professionally. Her colleagues even conservative ones were unwaveringly supportive. One whom she had worked with before, Duane Butcher, assembled a group to support McCutcheon that became known as the Gender Transition Committee. Butcher called the moment McCutcheon entered the embassys Marine Ball in a blue gown transcendent. A Marine handed her a rose, and everyone wanted to give her a hug. McCutcheon became a huge advocate for LGBTQ+ rights both at home and abroad, even becoming president of the State Departments LGBTQ+ employee group, glifaa.Its hard to overstate how important Robyn is and will continue to be in the story of this countrys march toward progress, former federal official Sharon McGowan told the Times.McCutcheon had always assumed the trans rights movement would continue to blaze forward. She was dumbfounded when Trump began furiously signing executive orders to erase trans people from public life. I tumbled into a very dark spot very quickly because it seemed so unexpected to me that this could happen so fast,she said. She knew she had to get out, even though it meant leaving behind her son and her boyfriend. Now, she isnt sure if shell ever return to the United States. Ive left before, Ive gone off on long trips before, but I always knew Id be coming back, she said. This is the first time theres a chance I wont.McCutcheon is far from the only trans person who has left or considered leaving the country in the wake of the Trump administrations anti-trans hostility, along with the continued rollback of trans rights in red states. Some, like Veronica Clifford-Carlos, are trying to make asylum claims, though a Dutch court just rejected her request.Shespoke toThe Worldin September from a Dutch refugee camp, where she explained, It feels like the U.S. doesnt see me as human. I am not seen as a woman in the eyes of the government, and because of my transition, I am technically not a man either.She said the thought of returning to the U.S. gives her more dread than I have ever experienced in my entire life.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.