In an advice column published by vox.com and trueobserver.com, an anonymous reader asks whether moving a family from a red state to a blue state constitutes abandoning the fight for local civil rights.
The reader, a lesbian living in a red state with a trans wife, explains that relocating would offer better nondiscrimination protections, worker safeguards, and healthcare access. At the same time, the reader worries that leaving contributes to the broader brain drain affecting the local queer community.
In response, the columnist—who moved with a queer partner from the United States to Canada—analyzes the moral dilemma through competing philosophical frameworks. vox.com reported that utilitarian philosophy, championed by thinkers like Peter Singer, urges people to maximize overall good impartially rather than prioritizing personal connections.
However, the columnist points to philosopher Bernard Williams, who argued that demanding absolute impartiality forces individuals to ignore personal commitments to loved ones. According to Williams, demanding that a person treat a spouse’s well-being with no more weight than a stranger’s destroys moral integrity.
Trueobserver.com noted the columnist’s warning that individuals experience vastly different vulnerability levels. Given ongoing political assaults on trans rights, the columnist writes that nobody should expect a trans person to shoulder risks equal to those borne by non-marginalized individuals.
Addressing the fear of abandoning the local struggle, the columnist cites contemporary philosopher Lisa Tessman. Tessman argues in Burdened Virtues that oppressive environments demand traits like sustained anger and constant vigilance, which can eventually warp moral character and erode personal well-being.
The columnist compares this dynamic to historical precedents such as the Great Migration of Black Americans from the Jim Crow South.
To prevent mission drift after a relocation, the columnist advises establishing a concrete plan for remote organizing, financial donations, and continued advocacy before making the move.
