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“It’s easy to kid yourself into believing that (trans people) have the same kind of safety guarantees as everyone else, but (trans people) don’t,” said Thomason.

The Canadian Independent Music Association (CIMA) saidÌýthere is a heightened sense of confusion around U.S. border regulations, especially for transgender, 2-Spirit, non-binary or intersex people and anyone with gender marker “X” on Canadian passports.

To address these concerns, more than 250 people attended an online discussion this week, to share advice for artists and their teams, hosted by CIMA along with the Canadian Federation of Musicians and two U.S. based arts and immigration lawyers.

“Since Trump took office we have seen worrisome news and it makes touring in the U.S. sound risky and part of the issue is we just don’t know,” said Andrew Cash, CEO and President of the Canadian Independent Music Association, as he opened the online event. Cash said with the news changing quickly, and knowing artists have to plan well in advance to perform in the U.S., it is hard to know what the scenario might be for touring artists.

Montreal-based singer-songwriter, Bells Larsen who is transgender, also recently announced the cancellation of his U.S. shows after he was told his application for a U.S. visa was likely to be denied based on his gender identity.

He is now in the process of refunding fans for tickets to shows scheduled in Boston and New York City, along with several dates across California in Beacon, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Healdsburg, Arcata and Merced where he was slated to treat his audience to his lo-fi ‘90s indie sound and folk ballads.

“I received an email ... from the American Federation of Musicians stating that I am no longer able to apply for a Visa because U.S. Immigration now only recognizes identification that corresponds with one’s assigned sex at birth,” he wrote in an online post.

The Instagram post goes on to say “To put it plainly, because I’m trans (and have an M on my passport), I can’t tour in the United States.”

For Karl Marx, a Calgary-based drag queen, comedian and burlesque performer, who is also transgender, cancelling her U.S. gigs felt necessary.Ìý

“It’s just too dangerous to chance, for the foreseeable future,” she said.

Many of the biggest festivals and events in her industry are in the U.S., said Marx, and while cancelling booked gigs significantly impacts her career, she feels it’s unsafe “because of the political climate.”

To Thomason, it just doesn’t feel safe to try to cross the border at this point, adding he has seen reports of cisgender people being detained at the U.S. border, and thought, “if that’s happening to cisgender people, I really worry about what might happen to a transgender person at the border,” said Thomason.

“Detention for trans clients is extremely scary,” said Toronto-based immigration lawyer Aadil Mangalji, a partner at LM Law Group.

“They will put you in detention of your gender assigned at birth, so there’s huge safety issues and that’s a huge worry with my trans applicants,” said Mangalji. “Much more than everybody else whose worst case scenario is you get detained but (cisgender people) don’t have the same safety issues that I see with my trans clients,” he said.

Picturing herself, an out transgender woman and professional drag queen, placed with only cisgender men in detention, Marx said, even “the risk of being sent to the wrong gendered detention centre is terrifying,” as she would be visible and vulnerable to violence and transphobia.

People “have a right to be anxious,” said Will Spitz, U.S. based lawyer and leader of CoveyLaws, performing arts division, who works on visa petitions for artists entering the U.S. temporarily to perform.

“It seems like everyday there’s a new horror story of someone getting detained or getting hassled or getting deported,” he said.

And for transgender, 2-Spirit, non-binary and intersex people, or anyone with an “X” gender marker on their Canadian passport, crossing the border could bring additional scrutiny, often with seemingly impossible lines of questioning, said Lee Clark, a U.S. based arts and immigration lawyer, who is also transgender.

“The least likely route of delay would be essentially disclosing that you are trans, disclosing what your sex assigned at birth is and then writing that down and outing yourself to the government,” said Clark. “Be prepared, it will be challenging to navigate ... and it takes a lot of labour, a lot of emotion,” he said.

“There is a real obvious danger when outing yourself as a trans person right now,” said Clark. “Unfortunately if you have ‘X’ on your passport, the way to navigate that with the least push back from the current administration is outing yourself with the sex you were assigned at birth whether you have that ID or not,” he said.

Tips for gender-diverse people travelling to the U.S.

• Don’t put your medications in a pill box, divided by days of the week. Instead, make sure all your prescriptions are labelled clearly, and in original packaging.
• If you are travelling with prescribed vials of testosterone, for example, make sure you have a doctors note, and that your syringes and needles are sealed in sterile packages.
• Instead of packing vitamins, consider leaving them at home in Canada and buying those items once you are in the U.S. to avoid unnecessary questioning.
• Leave some medications at home. It’s important to note, said experts, that not all over-the-counter medication that is legal to buy in Canada is the same in the U.S. Do not bring your extra strength Advil, for example.
  
• If you have them, its best to pack official name change forms, an old copy of a birth certificate, and a new one. Ask yourself if you can find a safe, discrete way to travel with these differing I.D’s.
• If you do not have any ID that is binary, or you are not comfortable disclosing you are not cisgender, reach out to immigration lawyers for advice before travelling.
• “Always go through a pre-clearance airport,” said Mangalji, “If something is going wrong you can just withdraw your application for admission and walk out. That fear of being held in detention or anything like that doesn’t exist because you’re still in Canada.”
• Remember, said Mangalji, “the attitude of the officers, is often seen out in the attitude of the state.” If you have to fly in, fly into New York, L.A., big centres where trans people tend to be a little safer, he said, because the officers there will also tend to be more liberal and better on these issues.