Moving wasn’t a decision that came easily to their family after spending 16 years in the only home Cas had ever known, and yet it is one that many families have been made to consider following 2021’s record number of anti-trans bills. In the wake of HB 1570’s passage, them. spoke to families across Arkansas who were being forced to choose between their children and their states. Parents in Texas and North Carolina, among the two dozen other states that have considered bills blocking medical care and sports access for trans youth, told NBC News they were also in the early stages of relocating to avoid potential discrimination.
The biggest obstacle to the Spurriers’ move, however, was not one of nostalgic attachment but the simple fact of money. Transition care is expensive, entailing everything from regular doctor appointments to multiple visits with mental health professionals. “All these things aren’t free,” George says. “They take up the cost that could otherwise be used to escape.”
Although George’s employer was able to secure him a transfer to New Mexico, which has had a fully inclusive LGBTQ+ nondiscrimination ordinance since 2003, the family were still worried they wouldn’t be able to afford to pull up stakes, with the move potentially costing them thousands of dollars. On her first of 4 trips to Albuquerque, Emily says she “made phone calls for about three days straight” before taking a two-bedroom apartment “sight unseen.”
“That was probably my 10th or 15th phone call down the list,” she recalls. “It was a lot of tears thinking that we wouldn’t have a place to live. We’d either have to live with his family or it would fall apart.”
The Spurriers are still looking for a house as they unpack in their temporary apartment. They’re doing so with help from a GoFundMe campaign that George set up shortly after they made the decision to start their lives over again. The Spurriers initially shared a link with their close circle of acquaintances on social media, anticipating that a couple friends and family members would chip in a few dollars. But their plea quickly went viral, with nearly 300 people from across the country donating at publication time. Thus far, the Spurriers have raised over $15,000 toward their goal of $20,000.
George says that this response has been “astounding,” noting that many of the people who contributed to the campaign are residents of their adopted state. “We didn’t really expect that much would come of it, but it spread and spread farther and farther and then suddenly the media was contacting us,” George adds. “There were many times where we sat back in shock.”
The money they have received will not only help the Spurriers find their new home in New Mexico but also assist their son as he begins the next chapter of his life. Within a year, Cas will be headed off to college where he hopes to study ornithology or paleontology. Ultimately, that decision is his to make, and Emily believes that there’s an important lesson there, if Arkansas lawmakers happen to be paying attention: “It’s not the choice of the government. It’s not the choice of the schools. It is the choice of my child who he wants to be.”
“That’s one of the things that was impressed upon him, ever since he was teeny tiny,” George adds. “We are here to help guide him into becoming an adult, but that adult that he grows into is his choice. Who he becomes, who he loves, all of that is his choice, not ours.”
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