Three years ago, Jessa Davis had an epiphany: After she came out as a trans woman, remaining in deep-red Texas felt untenable.So, she sold her house in Odessa and moved to the liberal bastion of Seattle, Wash.Davis describes herself as a trans refugee.
Back in Texas, she says, lived in a "pretty hostile and frankly dangerous" place."I had a lot of close calls, a lot of threats."Davis volunteered with organizations advocating for trans and queer rights in Odessa and remembers thinking, "I've got one life and I don't want to spend the next 20 years of [it] fighting a battle that I'm not sure we're going to win in a place like Texas."Her fight for LGBTQ rights continues, but it feels more manageable in a city she views as welcoming and supportive.
After arriving, Davis quickly became active in local issues and now serves as co-chair on a commission advising the city on LGBTQ issues.She and other commissioners have urged Seattle to declare a state of emergency to provide more resources for the growing number of people relocating there to escape anti-LGBTQ laws and hostile social climates elsewhere in the country.Davis' case reflects what sociologists call "ideological sorting" — the tendency to choose communities aligned with one's political and cultural values.
Popularized in the 2008 book The Big Sort, it sets out to explain the widening divide between red and blue America.In a country that's growing ever-more polarized, the shifting demographics cut in both directions — and it is happening across the country.In one study from 2022, researchers concluded that "at no point since the Civil War have partisans been as clustered within individual states as today."Research in recent years, however, suggests that the story is more complex and nuanced — and that simply seeking out like-minded neighbors is more often than not just one factor among several driving the shift.As Davis and others arrive in Seattle seeking refuge from hostile laws and rhetoric, some of Se...