That’s a thin ice you’re walking here… Some people appreciate the support, some people don’t like when work contacts get into their personal feelings territory.

It’s highly dependent on how close your interpersonal relationship is with co-worker, what I’d avoid for sure is suddenly closing the distance just because you know he is trans and you can tell recent events are affecting him.

You’d need to put a bit more thought into that, at least to start thinking in more detailed terms than “US” and “outside”.
Countries, visa types, schools for your kid, work opportunities for your wife, local language, acceptance of your identity (believe me, majority of places in the world are much worse in that regard than Trump could ever be), etc, etc…

What I can promise you is that money situation will be worse. Uprooting yourself and moving somewhere is a costly endeavor (did that 2 times, it’s not fun), and besides that US is the best country to earn money out there, it’s much harder to cover necessities and have disposable income pretty much anywhere else.

without paying £18 per month

yes, now I’m paying 10 times more.
Don’t mind it though, experience is better in every way possible besides occasional maintenance need, but it’s definitely not for everyone. Could be done cheaper, but it’s tradeoffs all the way as with everything in life.

on reddit majority of heavy lifting is done by community mods. hosting, however, is a pain, lemmy is centralized as fuck.