16-year-old Jasper relocated from Texas to Minnesota with their parents in order to escape from the alarming multiplication of bills targeting transgender youth. "I feel like this is much, much safer," says Mary, the mother of Jasper (their names have been changed to protect their identity). Like them, many US families with transgender children are fleeing to this northern state bordering Canada. Minnesota recently passed a "trans refuge" law that would guarantee legal protection for trans people coming from elsewhere to access medical care, introduced by the state's first openly transgender lawmaker Leigh Finke. "We know what it means to force people not to be themselves, and it's the coffin. It's coffin or closet," she tells AFP. "And it's just simply unacceptable." IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES ARRANGED IN SEQUENCES