Almost had a job - was all but hired, but whoops! I’m a gay trans man, should have considered that before I had hopes of being able to pay back my college loans.
What would be a realistic plan for driving straight down south to Mexico City and just knocking at every school door saying “¿necesitas maestro?” Or really, I’ll stop at the first city with access to testosterone and maybe a nice gay night scene.
I assume security going into Mexico is a lot easier to clear than the other way around? Visas probably cost money I don’t have LOL
Driving straight south will be tricky as all of the major roads have turns at some point. Make sure you have a vehicle that can handle well off road.
Maybe he didn’t want to risk driving gay south, especially through states like Texas where they’re fragile about such things.
Mexico is extremely conservative and largely Catholic. You’d be driving into essentially a Spanish speaking Vatican City the size of half the USA.
As long as they don’t have access to my birth certificate, there’s no evidence that I am transgender.
Mexico City has a much better scene for queer folks if you’re serious. Though there is quite a bit of pushback currently about US remote workers moving down there and gentrifying.
I really don’t want remote work. I want to be in a shitty high school fighting the Good Fight. Like not in a self aggrandizing Freedom Riders or Dangerous Minds way, but in a “yeah I was arrested in high school too, let’s talk about it” way.
I’m sorry you’ve lost the right to do actual good work in the places that probably need it most. I don’t know about teaching in Mexico but you could try Canada? Although we’re being picky with immigrants now too (and our shitty government refuses to admit that trans people from the US should be granted refugee status here).
If there’s no evidence, why does it matter in the US? Not like employers have access to your birth certificate. Serious question.
They can background check and see that my SSN has been used with a female name.
Hearing your a certified teacher have you looked at Canada. Rural areas have teaching shortages, we pay well and are very trans friendly.
I live on the border and cross into Mexico several times per week. First off, crossing into Mexico by car will involve more scrutiny than doing it on foot. Weapons laws are very strict there, don’t have any self defense equipment on you at all or else you could be in major trouble at the border. Also, bringing a car in for more than a temporary stay requires getting import permission. If you are going to Mexico City specifically, you will need to have a work visa and that means having pre-arranged plans for a job when you apply. There are a lot of people who travel to teach in Mexico—they aren’t desperate. You want to have actual qualifications for the job so you can compete.
Mexico is not some laissez-faire country like you seem to think it is, and Mexico City is a modern international mega-city. Places you try to get a job, especially as an American, are going to expect you to be legit.
Contrary to some of the replies here, I have actually found Mexico to have a relatively large gay and trans community, so in that respect, you’d have social options.
You want to have actual qualifications for the job so you can compete.
I’m qualified to teach secondary and post secondary science and math. I’ve made accounts on some websites to try to find a school that will help me with a work visa, but it seems a lot of places are more willing to hire people who are already there.
I know it’s not “lawless.” I’m just looking to escape the impossible credit card that my ex saddled me with (pro tip! max out your husbands credit cards before kicking him out and he won’t be able to afford a lawyer to do anything about it) and the coming student loan debt.
I have like $200 in my bank account, the limited work I get is seasonal and we just hit the off season and I’ll probably be negative after rent next month. Plus 20k of credit card, 60k of student loan. My car is maybe worth 10k, but the title is two years out of date.
I’ve been desperately fucked for two and a half years, and I’m just trying to figure out where I could show up with maybe $1000, find someplace not in the US that will let me teach algebra or chemistry and make enough to not die.
In your situation, you will probably want to sell the car and use the money to make sure you get the proper visas. If you don’t have much money left, you may want to consider moving to a smaller town than Mexico City to save on rent. You may also find places more desperate for teachers who could help you with getting a work visa. There are many YouTube channels about being an expat in Mexico, and those could help you narrow down a cheaper place to move.
consider moving to a smaller town than Mexico City
Can you give me hints?
I am fucked on executive functioning. My brain is on fire all of the time. I have been tortured. I can’t organize my thoughts while I live in this state. I am constantly surrounded by triggers and pain. I struggled to even figure out how to move into an apartment. Moving countries is terrifying and intimidating.
Here is a YouTube channel that discusses what it is like in a lot of different cities for expats:
Can you teach in Spanish??
If you need a job and also worried about being seen. Then call center WFH is for you.
Look at collection agencies that have WFH option. If you know Spanish, DM me. I can get you a job. The job isn’t glamorous or “fun” but you can make some cash and think about your future more.
It’s easy to get into Mexico with a US passport but staying and working is a different story.
Collection agencies? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. That is not a job for good people.
I work at one currently. In the IT department. People that do it arent bad, it’s just a job. Some are more pushy than others, but overall they are just like you and me trying to make a dollar.
I appreciate that explanation, but I wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t feel right about myself. You do you, but I could never do that, and I’m a US combat veteran. I wish I wasn’t, but here we are. So I get it, but…
Oh, I agree. I would not be a collector. It’s a terrible job, but the advantage is the bonus. Some people just fill a seat, make their hourly rate, and don’t push the issue.
It’s soul sucking, but they are just humans. Most have no skills other than sitting on the phone all day and talking. They are terrible at tech lmao.
We will lose them as a client soon, and they will be someone else’s problem. They are cheap af too but make BANK as a company. Somewhere in the range of 1 mill a month.
I believe in the Buddhist concept of “right livelihood”–one should not make their living to the detriment of others.
Yeah that’s nothing like me, and nothing like what I do to make a dollar. Please speak for yourself.
For more information on being a US resident/citizen trying to get out of the US, and what your options are in various countries, I also highly recommend Trans World Express https://transworldexpress.org/wiki/Main_Page
The info there isn’t necessarily only useful to trans people, but mostly is aimed at trans people, since trans people are very vulnerable right now.
Mexico City has a decent sized American citizen community living there, but it is mainly driven by full remote workers who live there but travel back to the USA for a few days every six months.
I suspect that work authorization may be a problem. I’ve also heard that the culture in Mexico is somewhat conservative due to the Catholic Church; getting a job in a school will likely be difficult.
A ~60 yo Mexican guy sitting next to me a few days ago in Oaxaca replied ’i don’t like Mexico City. Too many gays’, when i mentioned where all i had traveled to recently
You’d fall off the edge of the United States
What makes you certain it was due to your sexual orientation or gender?
No one ever says “we aren’t hiring you because you are trans.” But vague allusions to background checks are the usual.
but if that’s the usual for non-trans too, do you think maybe the wrong excuses are being targeted? I really think the whole job structure itself needs a rework personally. The job hunt grind is debilitating emotionally tho–I fully understand the frustration/outrage it induces consistently
The state superintendent found out that a principal at a local school was a drag queen on the weekends (a well kept secret, no one in the community even knew.)
He demanded that the principal be fired, and showed up to that school EVERY DAY for weeks until the man was fired.
When you hear hoof prints, it’s reasonable to think horses.
It’s exceptionally reasonable, but if you look up to see zebras you’re going to feel a bit silly, right? I don’t really know what you’re getting at, but only because I’m not seeing where specifically you engaged with anything I said
A couple of years ago, I literally had a job hire me, put me through a week of paid training, and then when my background check came through, they immediately fired me and tried to not pay me - claiming that they had never hired me in the first place.
The only thing that would show up on that background check is the fact that I am trans.
I had another job, in college, doing shit work. Day labor. One day, the boss took a look at my drivers license and asked me about the F. No more work after that, had to fucking sell my body.
Yeah, no one says “we are not hiring you because you are trans.” But it happens. And when it happens enough, it becomes absolutely bloody obvious that it is going on. Just like when I watched my boss at a fucking fast food restaurant toss a black guys application in the trash, because “the last one of those didn’t work out” - do you think he said to that guy “yeah I don’t hire black guys lol.”
They don’t even have to lie about it anymore, the Supreme Court ruled that we aren’t protected anyway.
The worst part about experiencing systemic discrimination is that no one believes it happens unless you get a piece of paper saying “yeah we don’t hire removeds lol”
I 100% believe you about your hardships–I don’t deny the truth of any of your very real and serious struggles. I’ve only encountered a single trans person irl, and it was a pretty bad experience for me because I was their assigned supervisor that ended up being the one having to deal with a lot of hormonal mood-swings during and after the transition wreaking havoc on team morale. I could let this one bad experience permanently tilt my outlook in much the same way you have with your unfortunate job/boss experiences. It would be emotionally easy and arguably reasonable to do so, but I refuse because I believe staying open-minded is critically important to growth and development.
I never said I didn’t believe you, I just believe that evil exists only in the eyes that see evil everywhere.
I never said I didn’t believe you, I just believe that evil exists only in the eyes that see evil everywhere.
This honestly has to be one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read. You cannot seriously believe this, right?
I would also like to see where this is documented.
Documented?! Hahahaha, you funny.
