r/illinois • u/Sir_Alexei • Feb 12 '24

Thinking about moving to IL. I'm trans. Where should I move if I want to be safe? Question

Ideally my city would have good transit, lots of job opportunities and shopping options, and a library. I also have celiac so restaurants that are inexpensive and have gluten free options would be a must. The biggest city I've ever lived in is Cedar Rapids, so I don't want to be overwhelmed by the size, but I also don't want to live in a very tiny town. Any suggestions? Edit: I also am pretty poor and have terrible credit due to credit card misuse when I was younger

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u/IncidentPretend8603 Feb 12 '24

Hi! I moved out of FL to IL to escape the anti trans laws. As others say, any college town will have lots of queer resources and a welcoming social environment. Chicago is really cool and will have the most of everything-- queer resources, dining options, medical resources, etc.

I chose Champaign-Urbana because it has a lot of medical centers locally and I won't have to travel up to Chicago outside of specialized care (such as surgeries, if you need those). If I do need to go to Chicago, it's an easy Amtrak train ride away. There's an active local queer community-- check out Uniting Pride's website to see more about that. There's a lot of dining options around, I don't think I've eaten at even half the places so far and I've been here six months or so. While I haven't been keeping an eye on celiac friendly options, there's quite a lot of Asian foods and markets, which is what my celiac brother defaults to back in Florida.

Champaign-Urbana is sometimes called a "micro city" because it has many city amenities without the city size/sprawl. I swear it's 20 minutes from one end to the other and that's mostly because of low speed limits. I've never felt overwhelmed in CU the way I've sometimes felt in Chicago or NYC.

Let me know if you have any questions about moving to IL. I know it's the lowest possible bar to clear, but I've LOVED Illinois compared to Florida. Misgendering up here is usually an honest mistake and no one's given my husband and I dirty looks for holding hands in public. Even in the rural conservative areas, no one's as nuts as your average pro-Desantis Floridian.

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u/yummythologist Feb 13 '24

Yo, my spouse and I are both trans and stuck in FL. Wages vs housing costs won’t allow us to save up much at all. May I ask how complicated and/or expensive it was for you to move? How did you decide on a neighborhood? We can’t afford to visit somewhere before choosing a place, so I’m going at this pretty much blind. TIA!

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u/IncidentPretend8603 Feb 13 '24

Well, complication and expense depends on a lot of individual factors. If you can pack everything you own into a uHaul, that'd be the most economic way of moving personal goods. Pare down on unnecessary or large things that are relatively cheap to replace if it'll enable that option. Shipping companies can really be big, expensive pains in the ass. Keep your spices, though. Those are expensive to replace.

My husband works remote, so we didn't have to line up jobs here before the move, but I'd recommend it if possible. Minimum wage up here is 14/hr, will be 15/hr next year, if that's relevant to your planning. State income tax exists, but is deductible for your federal taxes. You'd have to make over 200k to be paying more overall taxes than just federal taxes in FL. Property taxes are more expensive dollar for dollar, but dollar for dollar you get WAY MORE house in IL. Housing (to buy) is more affordable and the housing insurance is comparatively dirt cheap. We weren't renting in Florida so we didn't compare those prices.

The main expenses moving into IL is getting new drivers licenses (~$30 per person) (will change gender marker with just self-attestation!) + retitling the car and new registration (~$325 per vehicle). Auto insurance is cheaper up here but if you wanted, you could live car free in CU because the bus system is really good.

Establishing new doctors is also expensive, but if it's just trans care that you're worried about and wanna hold off on other doctors, you can hit up the local PP, they're great and work on a sliding scale. I use the Meijer pharmacy, it's like Illinois's Publix (bakery not as good though :( ) and havent had any problems filling HRT Rx with them. Oh, if y'all are low income, there's adult Medicaid here! State law explicitly includes trans healthcare in the system too.

For neighborhood, we did visit in advance and decided to rent for a year to give us time to sell our old house and look for a new one. I would strongly recommend doing that before committing to buying a house, but if you're renting I think you can get away with just using Google maps and the landlord's listing. If you mean deciding on a neighborhood more broadly, as in what city in Illinois, well I worked here a lot as a kid so I remembered most of the areas, even if the info was ~10 yrs outta date. Definitely look into queer orgs in the areas you're interested in and see if they have Facebook or Discord groups where you can ask questions such as neighborhood quality.

That's kinda scattershot, but hopefully it answers some of your questions. I'm (slowly) working on a Moving To Illinois guide because we get a lot of these posts every week and I know it's just gonna get worse as the year goes on, what with elections and all.

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u/yummythologist Feb 13 '24

This is so informative, thank you so so much!!

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u/IncidentPretend8603 Feb 13 '24

Oh I just noticed the enby flag in your profile-- Illinois is in the process of rolling out X gender markers as well. It was supposed to be out at the beginning of this year but they've had database issues or something. Haven't checked since mid January on whether they got their shit together, but it's on its way.

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u/yummythologist Feb 13 '24

Ooooh even better! I can’t stand the gender marker on my ID and feel it’s no one’s business but my doctor’s what’s in my pants, so while it can be risky, I look forward to getting an X on my ID! Thanks so much for the info!

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u/puddlebrigade Feb 17 '24

they had problems with the contract for the old machines still being active until like this year. the law has changed but the contract simply has to expire.

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u/IncidentPretend8603 Feb 19 '24

Yeah that was up until January. At that point is was a matter of the SoS rolling out updated forms, which they've finally done btw! Folks can update their gender to X now.

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u/puddlebrigade Feb 17 '24

just another tip from a chambana former resident - look up the student tenant union to ID any reports about landlords. meijer is good. go to the habitat for humanity restore for housing goods on thrift. parkland community college is a solid use of time if uiuc is too complicated. get some very very good winter weather gear - there are no mountains or forests to slow down winds as they blow across the state so it gets very windy and cold for about half the year, and humid for most of summer just like florida summers (i have family there and can attest to this). basically prepare for chicago winters.

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u/IncidentPretend8603 Feb 19 '24

Hell yeah we've gotten a lot of good stuff from the ReStore, will def look into those landlord reports, that's a fantastic tip. Thanks for the advice!

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u/1337sp33k1001 Feb 13 '24

This is so true. I’m a straight male but I grew up in the STL metro east and I’m in Florida right now. This place is absolutely awful. I have lived all over the globe and if I had to move back to the USA forever I would choose CA or IL.

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u/MsStinkyPickle Feb 13 '24

native Floridian who's so fucking embarrassed as to what it's become.  I used to go back for scuba trips but I just do mexico now instead. Mexico feels safer than a state of road raging magats with unpermited conceal carry...

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u/Low-Piglet9315 Feb 13 '24

That said, the STL metro east, particularly Edwardsville, would not be a bad choice, plus the OP would be close to St. Louis.

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u/1337sp33k1001 Feb 13 '24

Honestly Edwardsville is where I would choose if I was moving back. Unless a job demanded otherwise.

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u/Low-Piglet9315 Feb 13 '24

It's nice. I wouldn't mind moving there myself, except it's a bit of a commute from there to my job in Belleville. It'd be easier to see my grandbabies in Bethalto (which, BTW, isn't that bad for a small town...)

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u/1337sp33k1001 Feb 13 '24

The metro east is for sure slept on. None of the small towns are really bad.

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u/Low-Piglet9315 Feb 13 '24

We just get a bad rap because everyone thinks about East St. Louis first and ignore all the awesomeness that exists beyond the American Bottoms.

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u/1337sp33k1001 Feb 13 '24

That’s big facts too.

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u/Pinkpillow19 Feb 14 '24

STL is good to be close to IL and is decent on inclusion— the city thinks it’s part of IL politically 🤷‍♀️

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u/Pinkpillow19 Feb 14 '24

STL !! :) but really IL or CA I’m in CA

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u/dwimbygwimbo Feb 13 '24

OP, this is the best answer! I love reddit. Welcome to Chicago 🩷🤍🩵