Illinois is in a kinda weird state where we have a lot of protections for trans individuals, buuuuut there's still a ton of bigots who are angry about those protections in the southern half of the state. The southern half is also, unfortunately, the cheapest half for cost of living while not being super flush with work. The closer you get to Chicago, the less transphobes you have to deal with, and the more jobs are available, but cost of living gets way higher. There's probably a good goldilocks zone of like Naperville or maybe Normal where transphobes are still very low and cost of living isn't nuts yet, but I haven't needed to look.