Annual Trans Latinx Night in Jackson Heights
demands equality and end of discrimination
BY GABRIELE HOLTERMANN
The 10th annual Trans
Latinx Night at Corona Plaza
in Jackson Heights saw more
than 200 community members
join the festivities and calls for
an end to discrimination on
Tuesday, Aug. 2.
Within 10 years, the event
by the Trans Immigrant Project
(TRIP), an LGBTQ immigrant
advocacy division of
Make the Road New York, has
grown from a small community
march demanding employment
equality to a major annual
event calling for an end to
transgender violence and the
criminalization and detention
of trans people.
This year, event organizers
canceled the march due
to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
Instead, the group rallied
for transgender rights in the
plaza, featuring transgender
speakers who shared their stories
and lively performances
by transgender entertainers.
Attendees — some carrying
signs with the image of Roxsana
Hernández, a Honduran
transgender woman who died
in ICE custody in 2018 — criticized
the Biden-Harris administration,
which they say still
has to live up to its campaign
promise to improve the lives of
immigrants and the LGBTQ+
community.
They demanded the administration
end the detention
of Black queer and trans
immigrants and the passage
of a pathway to citizenship
for all undocumented people.
Advocates also called for the
decriminalization of sex work
in New York and the disbandment
of the NYPD’s vice
squads which, activists say,
disproportionately target and
criminalize trans women of
color.
Tiffany Jade Monroe came
to the U.S. from Guyana. She
fled her country after years of
emotional and physical abuse
as well as homelessness after
her parents abandoned her.
Currently, she lives with
her aunt, who she described as
transphobic, in South Ozone
Park. She called out transgender
discrimination, lack
of affordable housing and employment
opportunities for
transgender people.
She reminded the crowd
that Black and Brown trans
women are still killed at record
Transgender community members and allies celebrated the 10th annual Trans Latinx Night in Corona Plaza. Photos by Gabriele Holtermann
numbers by their partners,
family members and
Black men and demanded an
end of the brutal killings.
“We will not be pushed into
the shadows, be silenced or
hide within our own communities
of color,” Monroe said.
“I say this to you as a scared,
Black trans woman who fears
her name will one day be added
to a ‘say their names’ list.”
While transgender speakers
shared their stories, a
group of activists unfurled a
large banner from the 7 line
elevated platform with three
demands: “Dismantle NYPD
Vice units,” “protect sex workers”
and “citizenship for all.”
Demonstrators cheered the
action while pink, blue and
white powder, representing
the colors of the trans flag, was
shot into the air.
The emcees of the event,
Mario Chavez and Geraldine
Monroy, shared their stories
with QNS, with the help of
translator and Make the Road
NY organizer Yatziri Tovar.
Chavez said he was at the
rally for one simple reason: he
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.10 COM | AUG. 13 - AUG. 19, 2021
knows what discrimination
from family and society feels
like after he came out as gay
when he was 15 years old.
“They turned their back
on me,” Mario shared. “Before
that, everything was love,
everything was sweet. Even
when I graduated as an accountant
and when I went out looking
for a job, people discriminated
against me because of
my sexual orientation.”
Geraldine Monroy, a transgender
woman, came to the
U.S. two years ago from Mexico
and was held in an all-male
detention center in California
for four months.
The singer, entertainer and
stylist left Mexico because
she was being persecuted in
her home country and said it
didn’t matter that she was a
professional singer when she
arrived in New York.
“I had to start at the very
bottom. I know that together
we fight. And whatever we
get out of this will also benefit
me,” said Monroy, who has
worked as a cleaner and caretaker
in New York City. “But
with the help of these organizations,
I’m able to lift myself
up and keep going.”