REMEMBRANCE
Lorena Borjas, Beloved Trans Advocate, Lost to COVID
Queens leader dedicated her life to serving marginalized queer, immigrant communities
BY MATT TRACY
Lorena Borjas, a Queensbased
transgender activist
and community leader
who provided unstinting
social support to trans folks, sex
workers, and others, died early in
the morning of March 30 after suffering
from coronavirus.
A native of Mexico, Borjas, 59,
became a revered fi gure in her
neighborhood of Jackson Heights
— but her impact extended far
beyond the confi nes of Queens.
Borjas emerged as an icon for the
broader transgender community
thanks to her dedication to uplift
generations of marginalized folks
through her deep compassion for
others.
“It is such a dark day for all of
us,” said Borjas’ close friend Cecilia
Gentili, a trans leader who has
played a key role in local advocacy
work. In a phone interview, Gentili,
who was meeting with Borjas
weekly up until she became ill,
explained that she helped usher
a reluctant Borjas to the hospital
by calling 911 when she was feeling
sick. Borjas was fi rst hospitalized
at Long Island Jewish Medical
Center for a couple of days as she
awaited her COVID-19 test results,
but she was discharged before the
results arrived.
“They sent her back home,
where she really declined,” said
Gentili, who added that Borjas
was soon hospitalized again, this
time at Elmhurst Hospital — one
of the most overburdened hospitals
during the crisis. Borjas was
subsequently transferred to Coney
Island Hospital, where she died.
“It was hard to fi nd information
because we are not blood family,”
Gentili added. “As a family of
choice, we don’t have rights. We
had to fi nd her proxies.”
Borjas, who moved to the US in
her early 20s, became an unwavering
advocate for others while facing
steep hurdles in her own life. Her
legal status here was in jeopardy
due to decades-old offenses stemming
from when she was a human
traffi cking victim — particularly
Lorena Borjas leaves behind a legacy rich in her work helping others who most needed the assistance.
when she faced the threat of deportation
for those charges during
the early years of the Trump administration.
However, she found
relief in December 2017 when she
became one of 61 people pardoned
by Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Borjas was extremely active in
helping trans women, sex workers,
and others get HIV testing, necessary
supplies to practice safe sex,
emergency funds, and legal representation
to help buffer the interactions
of these marginalized folks
with the criminal justice system.
Gentili elaborated on Borjas’
profound, years-long impact on the
lives of trans folks and sex workers.
She remembered her friend as
an individual who would consistently
remind sex workers to carry
condoms and keep them informed
about the legal ramifi cations of
their work.
“I remember going with Lorena
in the middle of the night,” Gentili
recalled. “She would walk with a
bag full of condoms. She would educate
people not to have more than
two condoms because police could
use them as evidence and charge
them with prostitution. At the
same time, she would walk back
and forth to make sure girls had
the condoms to do their work.”
That was only a small slice of the
tireless volunteer services Borjas
offered day in and day out without
TWITTER/ SAMY NEMIR-OLIVARES
pay, even as she juggled a full-time
job.
“Needed a lawyer? Doctor? Housing?
A job? She was there,” Gentili,
expressing raw emotion, said as
she refl ected back on Borjas’ life.
”Lorena was that person who, if
you got arrested, you called her at
three in the morning and she would
answer. First thing in the morning
she would be in court with a lawyer
to get you out of jail.”
Borjas spearheaded a fund that
was used to bail folks out of jail
to help them avoid deportation
and further criminalization. Her
far-reaching support network was
evident in the hours following her
death when numerous members of
the community expressed grief on
social media.
Bianey Garcia, a trans activist
who has helped shine a light on
anti-LGBTQ violence in Jackson
Heights and is an infl uential voice
in the fi ght to decriminalize sex
work, said in a tweet that she was
“very sad to wake up this morning
and know that one of the TRANS
rights activists in NYC has lost the
battle against #Coronavirus. I am
speechless, #LorenaBorjas, thank
u for everything u did for the community
& for the impact u have
had on the lives of many, including
me.”
Chase Strangio, the deputy
director for transgender justice
with the American Civil Liberties
Union’s LGBT and HIV Project,
also took to Twitter to react to Borjas’
passing, writing, “Lorena saved
more people than almost anyone I
have ever known. She was relentless
in her fi ght for her community.
I am so sorry we couldn’t protect
you from this.”
Samy Nemir-Olivares, a Latinx
queer activist and district leader
candidate in Brooklyn, tweeted,
“COMPLETELY HEARTBROKEN…
one of the pioneer transgender advocates
in the country, who helped
thousand of undocumented people,
sex workers, transgender people —
ALL in Spanish only. Her legacy
will live on.
Elected offi cials such as Queens
Assemblymember Catalina Cruz,
out gay City Council Speaker
Corey Johnson, and Queens Councilmember
Daniel Dromm also expressed
their condolences. Dromm,
who knew Borjas and represents
the area where she was based, told
Gay City News in a written statement
that he “can’t believe she is
gone.”
“I am saddened by the tragic loss
of my dear friend, Lorena Borjas,”
said Dromm, who chairs the City
Council’s LGBT Caucus. “Lorena
was a superstar in the movement
for transgender equality and justice.
She helped so many immigrants
gain a stable footing here in
their new country. Lorena worked
tirelessly to ensure that the needs
of her community members were
met. She touched the lives of so
many people here in Queens and
will be sorely missed. Her work will
live on.”
As Gentili looked back on her
time with Borjas, she fought back
tears. She grew emotional as she
spoke about the struggles Borjas
endured to make sure others
would have a better life and thrive
in their communities.
“People looked up to her,” Gentili
said. “Lorena survived migrating
to the United States. She survived
violence in the United States and
in New York, she survived drugs,
she survived many health conditions.
She was unstoppable.”
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