Canadian musician Bells Larsen, who is trans, has been forced to cancel his upcoming US tour dates due to immigration requiring government-issued IDs to match “one’s assigned sex at birth.”
“I have to cancel all of the American shows on my spring tour (Boston, NYC, Beacon, LA, San Fran, Healdsburg, Arcata, and Merced),” Larsen wrote on Instagram. “I received an email on Tuesday from the American Federation of Musicians stating that I am no longer able to apply for a Visa because US Immigration now only recognizes identification that corresponds with one’s assigned sex at birth. To put it super plainly, because I’m trans (and have an M on my passport), I can’t tour in the
States.”
Larsen received the news just two weeks before the release of his upcoming album, Blurring Time, which is about his transition. The artist explained that he had already been considering whether to “go about business as usual” with the tour for several weeks.
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“The accumulation of border horror stories + worried check-in texts from loved
ones + increasingly troublesome updates on the news and on official government websites with regards to travel precautions has resulted in a plethora of nightmares and anxiety,” he continued. “If random people are getting randomly questioned/stopped/detained at borders, how can I — as someone wanting to make money abroad by exhibiting my lived experience as a trans person — expect to pass go and get out of jail free?”
Before Larsen learned of the policy, he had planned to travel “in the safest way possible” with a cisgender male, “handing border agents a Visa and passport with M’s on them, crossing borders via plane, and performing exclusively in blue states.”
After speaking with two immigration lawyers and receiving the email, however, Larsen realized “there is no way to move forward here.” He added, “This new policy has crushed my dreams. I’m cradling a very broken heart and the realization that I don’t know if or when I will be able to tour in the States again.”
“This album is, in many ways, my life’s work. I am more and more gutted with every
day that passes by the (seeming) dissonance between the world in which I created this project and the world into which I am releasing it,” Larsen continued. “I was hoping that the album would help me break into the US music market and connect with cool, likeminded American musicians. More than anything, though, I just really wanted to perform my album for queer and trans people in the US who saw their stories reflected in my own.”
One of President Trump’s first executive orders upon taking office for his second term implemented requirements that official US documents like passports and visas “accurately reflect the holder’s sex,” which the administration says is “not changeable.”
In February, Euphoria star Hunter Schafer, who is also trans, posted a TikTok revealing her new passport was issued with a male gender marker. “Because our president is a lot of talk, I was like, ‘I’ll believe it when I see it,’” she said. “And, today, I saw it.”
Blurring Time is due out on April 25th via Royal Mountain Records. Pre-orders are ongoing via Bandcamp. Get tickets for Larsen’s upcoming shows in Canada here.
