The chill in the air at noon on Monday matched the chill that’s fallen over most of the LGBTQ+ community after Trump’s re-election a couple weeks ago. Analysts can dissect economic anxieties all they want, but a terrible truth is that Trump’s outrageous falsehoods about immigrants and demonization of transgender people (and Kamala’s shameful silence in response to both) helped put him over the top.
Yet the fire of resolve to preserve and grow San Francisco as a sanctuary for trans immigrants and refugees while enduring the next administration radiated warmth from the steps of San Francisco City Hall. Trans immigrant leaders gathered to mark the third Transgender Immigrants Day, instituted by Mayor Breed in 2022, with declarations of solidarity and appeals to allies to help keep the sanctuary flame lit. The fabulous diversity and colorful expression present for the special press conference—hosted by the LGBT Asylum Project and Parivar Bay Area’s Center for Immigrant Protection and the city’s Office of Transgender Initiatives—lifted spirits in a time of crisis.
The gathering kicked off Transgender Awareness Week, with Wednesday’s Transgender Day of Remembrance as its centerpiece. (A commemoration rally for trans lives lost and in danger will start at 5:30pm on Wed/20, and march to the LGBT Community Center for a 7pm program of speakers and performers, more info here.)
“Today, more than ever, the lives of transgender immigrants are at risk, and we must be protected” said Anjali Rimi, Board President of the Center of Immigrant Protection (CIP), who had envisioned the day celebrating those who came here for a better life. CIP helps provide legal assistance and social integration for trans immigrants, as well as promoting awareness and education in order to build “a community of light love and unity.” The organization has helped 127 transgender individuals get their approvals to stay in the country, assisted 5000 people with finding legal services, and help more than 200 events to build community.
“As we approach 2025, we face obstacles that may take away our protections and strip our lives away from our families and communities,” Rimi, who came to San Francisco 25 years ago and experienced homelessness and statelessness, continued. “These attacks are not just isolated attacks, there are more than 400 bills taking shape in the past few years aiming to take away our freedoms and erase us. In the face of these challenges to the transgender, gender non-binary, gender-expansive, and intersex folks in the immigrant community, we must unite. You see unity on the stage tight now with each one of us, across all identities, origins, faiths, religions, castes, regions, languages, spiciness of foods [laughs]. We call on those who are privileged and who have power to take a stand to protect this community.
“The most powerful force in this fight that we are all facing, will surely come from the most resilient community in this world: the transgender community,” Rimi continued. “Trans people are here to stay, and trans immigrants are here to thrive—unshaken, unyielding, and unstoppable in our truth, in our grace, and in our love for one another. Before denying a place at your table or a position in your field to a transgender immigrant because of the way they speak or dress, I ask you to take the time to listen, listen our stories, our journeys, our experiences. What you see today of our resilience and courage to stand up here as trans immigrants, didn’t happen overnight. It took a lot to overcome hate and violence to be where we are today.
“If someone like me, a Global South transgender Hindu immigrant, can keep opening doors to other transgender immigrants, that will only make this city and nation more compassionate, inclusive, and thriving. We are not asking for acceptance, we are not asking for condoning of our identities. We must be seen, valued, and celebrated for who we are. It’s time to build the greatest trans family, standing united in our humanity, transcending all boundaries.”
Other transgender immigrant leaders, including El/La Para TransLatinas Executive Director Nicole Santamaria and Center of Immigrant Protection board member Jupiter Peraza, made moving speeches that highlighted the resilience of the community in the face of violence and persecution. If you fear what’s coming, these strong, outspoken people have probably lived it, fleeing from places where their very existence was considered a threat.
Peraza remembered transgender people who have died in ICE detention: Johana Medina Leon, a 25-year-old transwoman from El Salvador whose complaints of chest pains were ignored, and Roxsana Hernandez, a Honduran transwoman who died of dehydration and complications from HIV. Both women passed in 2019.
“I think of these two women because it could have been me, or any of us—and it still can be,” Peraza said. “These two transwomen immigrants died during Trump’s first administration.”
Santamaria, a member of the Cacaopera tribe in El Salvador who was forced to flee the country after her activism around trans and women’s rights drew violent threats, said, “Our transcestors, all the diversity of humanity, have brought us here, across borders, to continue to open roads, to continue building bridges, when hope is not here any longer. Now in a time of unprecedented hatred, we are here, saying we are not going anywhere.”
