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She fled Guatemala at a very young age because she could not accept rejection, violence from society, or even death for her sexual orientation and gender identity. Zafiro Rivera has lived in San Francisco, California, since 1992, where she faces daily challenges such as transphobia, homophobia, and discrimination, acts of hate that, despite her struggle, continue to persist.
Always beautiful, with an infectious smile and full of enthusiasm, Zafiro went from being a victim to raising her voice to fight for the rights of trans women and the LGBTQI+ community, especially those of Latin origin, who, out of fear, shame or ignorance, have been left behind in the protection of their rights.
Zafiro Rivera, a transgender woman, former sex worker, and current activist, has seen fellow activists die from addiction problems and, for this reason, has not remained silent in the face of the problems faced by girls like her.
“Many transgender women in San Francisco face stigmas and problems such as transphobia, discrimination, lack of job opportunities, access to decent housing or immigration status that allows them to have better living conditions,” Zafiro Rivera told Península 360 Press.
For Zafiro, being a trans girl is not easy. “We face many challenges, especially in our places of origin. We face transphobia, discrimination, even among ourselves, but we also experience these problems in cities like San Francisco.”
“That’s why we do the marches,” Zafiro said, while she adjusts her hair and confirms that she looks beautiful. “We have to make ourselves present so that our voices are heard, to make ourselves visible, so that people understand us and comprehend us a little more. It is important that the population knows and respects gender diversity.”
There and here, the same problems
Her vanity prevents her from doing so, but Zafiro is fully aware of the problems that trans girls face in San Francisco and other towns, the same ones that have persisted for years despite California being one of the most progressive states in terms of LGBTTTIQ+ rights.
“Problems like lack of housing, health insurance, immigration, many things that girls need. There is help, but sometimes there are barriers to people getting that help: language, immigration status, all of these are things that prevent girls from being able to access those services,” she stressed.
Paying bills, rent, food and clothing is something we all go through in our adult lives, but what happens when you can't get a job because of your sexual preference or gender? While it's true that discrimination for any of these reasons is prohibited, it is a constant practice behind closed doors, which is why many trans women are forced to become sex workers.
“Many of us have to resort to sex work because we are not given work because we are transgender girls, so it is an option that we have to make, although many girls do find and can do work like any normal person,” she explained.
As an activist and health promoter, she acknowledged that, in the past, she resorted to sex work as a way to obtain resources.
“I am currently in an organization that works for people living with HIV, that supports Latinos and members of the LGBTQI+ community. I always talk to other trans girls to let them know that they can get ahead,” she said.
According to data from the Trans Employment Initiative (TEEI), an organization that supports transgender and gender non-conforming (GNC) people, 47 percent of transgender people in the United States reported having been unfairly fired or denied employment.
In turn, 76 percent say they have experienced harassment in the workplace. Trans people are twice as likely as the general population to be out of work, despite the fact that trans people are also twice as likely to have a bachelor’s degree. As a result, San Francisco’s trans and GNC community faces widespread poverty and homelessness.
two souls
Transphobia, homophobia, discrimination, lack of professional employment opportunities, housing, and comprehensive personal development are problems that occur daily among members of the lesbian, gay, trans, bisexual, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) community living in California, especially when they are immigrants and/or Latinxs.
This was denounced by Ángel C Fabian-Tlahuizpapalotl, executive director of American Indian Two-Spirits Bay Area (BAAITS) ‒ Two-Spirit Indian-American of the Bay Area‒, an organization with a presence in various parts of the United States, dedicated to human rights, promoting culture through spirituality, as well as focusing on art with people who identify as two-spirit, such as Native Americans or indigenous LGBTQI+ people.
“I think that something that still exists, unfortunately, is discrimination. I was just giving a presentation to leaders of a health organization, and there is still a lot of work to be done in the community,” Vera told Península 360 Press.
The activist said that there are “indigenous people in the transgender community who identify as such, unfortunately, they experience the highest rates of homelessness and joblessness, where abuse persists. There are people who are discriminated against, the highest rate is in the transgender community, and many who identify as two-spirited.”
Vera regretted that “many indigenous youth who are part of the community also figure among the highest rates of people who think about suicide, who are discriminated against, who suffer from harassment in schools. The good thing is that there are also many beautiful things in this population.”
He stressed that “among the double-spirited population, we have a lot of courage, a lot of strength to move forward, especially because of our indigenous identity, our customs, our culture, our ancestral and original languages, which are very strong and very much alive.”
Proudly gay and positive
For Juan Pablo Medellín, who identifies as a gay, cisgender Latino man, immigrant and proudly Mexican, “although there has been progress in the rights of the LGBTQI+ community, discrimination for various reasons can be present, there are laws that protect us but we have to continue working to enforce them.”
In this regard, he recalled that “this whole gay pride month movement began in New York City, a few decades ago, because at the time there was a lot of repression against people of the same gender who gathered together.”
“Ultimately, for me, it is a way of living, of being ourselves, being honest with ourselves. There are many people who question 'pride of what?' It is not about showing off, which is one of the things that people complain a lot about, but rather it is a personal issue, about being able to be who we want to be, because the LGBTQI+ community has always been discriminated against and violated,” she said.
Juan Pablo recalled that the attacks against the community “have reached the point where many people have to live a life of lies, lead double lives, pretend to be someone they are not; that is why it is a source of pride to say 'this is me, no matter who it may bother', for me that is the importance, to accept ourselves first,” he stressed.
Originally from Mexico City but raised in Aguascalientes, from a very young age he had to turn to a social organization to receive information about sexual and gender orientation, as well as on the subject of HIV. “I am very grateful for the help I received at the time, because it was the way I was able to find peace of mind in this regard.”
“I came to San Francisco six years ago. For me, it has been a place that offers many advantages to people in the community. I say this because the two biggest challenges I have had in my life have been coming out of the closet as a teenager and being diagnosed with HIV, which fortunately these days is no longer comparable to what it was in the 80s or 90s, but it is still something that changes your life because you are a victim of stigma.”
In favor of an “inclusive pride”
BAAITS Executive Director Ángel Fabian Vera mentioned that, in many ancestral cultures, being part of the LGBTQI+ community was something admired, not under a community or under an acronym, it was simply because one could be freer, but it was not something out of the ordinary.
He explained that double-spirited people, as they were known, “were and continue to be special, but during colonization, specifically in our Latin American cultures, Catholicism tried to erase much of what already existed in our native communities.”
“We, as double-spirited people, were in charge of our families, of ceremonies, we were medicine people, of rituals in our communities, but that was taken away from us by colonization,” she explained.
In this regard, he asked the general population to be in favor of inclusive pride, because, unfortunately, in the case of the double-spirited population, discrimination can come from other members of the community.
"We have to continue moving forward, demanding that attention be paid to the problems that we know exist, that are experienced daily by our population. The demand must be, above all, with our leaders, who are the ones who make decisions regarding public policies," he added.
Important data:
LGBTQI+ is an acronym that refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and intersex people. The term has evolved over time to include all gender identities and sexual orientations, hence the “+” symbol.
The term LGTBIQ+ began to be used in the 1990s, although over time it has been adapted to new groups in the world.
History of gay pride celebration
International LGBTIQ+ Pride Day, also known as Gay Pride Day or simply Gay Pride, is celebrated every year on June 28 with the aim of urging tolerance, equality and dignity for gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, queer, and intersex people, among others.
The celebration is on June 28 because that date commemorates the Stonewall riots (New York, USA) of 1969, which marked the beginning of the homosexual liberation movement.
These riots consisted of a series of spontaneous and violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early hours of June 28, 1969, in the pub known as the Stonewall Inn in the New York neighborhood of Greenwich Village, one of the few spaces of freedom for the homosexual community that was frequently harassed by the city police.
The Stonewall Inn's regulars had had enough of this homophobic harassment and that day the police wanted to arrest several of the 200 people who were in the bar for reasons as simple as two men or women dancing together or not wearing clothing considered traditional for their sex.
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