Trans Woman From Trinidad Finds Refuge in the US
Denise Chambers sought asylum in America after a brutal transphobic attack
BY TAT BELLAMY-WALKER
Denise Chambers, a Black transgender
woman who lives in Bellerose,
Queens, said she left her home
country of Trinidad in 2004 after
facing a brutal transphobic attack.
Chambers was heading home from a party
in February of that year when a transphobic
mob assaulted her in the street and threatened
to burn down her apartment if she reported
the incident to the police. Shortly after,
Chambers contacted a friend in the US, who
advised her to fl ee the island. The following
month she arrived in the US and originally
planned for a temporary stay to obtain employment.
“I did not want that threat to become a reality,”
Chambers said in an interview with Gay
City News. “It was for more of an economic reason
so that I could save money, return to Trinidad,
and move out from where I was living because
it was not a safe environment.”
Chambers’ journey to the United States was
not easy, however. With backing from the LGBTQ
immigrant advocacy group Immigration
Equality, she petitioned for asylum throughout
a fi ve-year stretch during which she faced
adversity as an undocumented immigrant. Finally,
in October of 2014, a judge granted her
asylum and she received her green card to work
and live permanently in the US.
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girls,” but the court found that this statute
was not “substantially related” to achieving
that objective.
Judge Goodwin invoked NCAA and Olympic
Committee policies recognizing that transgender
women can fairly compete with cisgender
women, and quoted testimony offered by Becky
Pepper-Jackson’s expert witness that “there is a
medical consensus that the difference in testosterone
is generally the primary known driver of
differences in athletic performance between elite
male athletes and elite female athletes.” Since
Pepper-Jackson, age 11, had been on pubertyblockers
for over a year, she had not undergone
puberty and thus had not enjoyed the “physical
advantages” that pubescent boys experience as
testosterone affects their growth and musculature.
Judge Goodwin found “unpersuasive” the
contrary evidence introduced by the state. “Like
Judge Nye in the District of Idaho,” he wrote, “I
fi nd this opinion unpersuasive. While that argument
might be relevant to a facial challenge
LUKE AMORELI
Denise Chambers left her home country of Trinidad in 2004 following
a brutal transphobic attack.
of the statute, it is irrelevant in this as-applied
analysis. B.P.J. has not undergone endogenous
puberty and will not so long as she remains on
her prescribed puberty blocking drugs. At this
preliminary stage, B.P.J. has shown that she
will not have any inherent physical advantage
over the girls she would compete against on the
girls’ cross country and track teams.” He also
noted that the law did not advance safety concerns
argued by the state, that cisgender girls
were at risk of harm competing physically with
“biological males,” because track is not a contact
sport.
Turning to Title IX, the court found that the
same analysis applies, noting the Supreme
Court’s ruling last year in Bostock v. Clayton
County that discrimination against somebody
for being transgender is “discrimination on the
basis of sex” under Title VII, and that Title VII
cases are generally relied on to interpret Title
IX’s sex discrimination ban. The Offi ce of Civil
Rights of the US Department of Education recently
published a formal interpretation in the
Federal Register supporting the application of
the Bostock ruling to Title IX.
GREAT MOSAIC
“The years that I spent here as an undocumented
immigrant — it was years of psychological
and emotional torture for me,”
Chambers said. “Being an undocumented
immigrant and being trans, you live on the
fringes of society.”
Fast forward more than a decade and Chambers
is a medical assistant and gained American
citizenship earlier this year. While her
family targeted her with transphobic abuse,
the US has become a refuge from these challenges.
“I was always treated with disdain,” Chambers
said, referring to her relatives. “I had no
reason to return to Trinidad even if I want to,
and so I decided to stay. It was a big decision. It
is one which I don’t regret today.”
The coronavirus pandemic also threw her for
a loop when it hit the city last March. She was
eventually diagnosed with it despite being cautious.
“I wasn’t feeling well, but I thought it was just
a simple cold,” she recalled.
Despite the many challenges of the pandemic,
Chambers’ newfound American citizenship
is a major bright spot — and one that will have
a lasting impact.
“It’s an indescribable feeling,” Chamber said.
“I have a renewed sense of confi dence. I am very
optimistic. I look at myself, and I tell myself,
‘you belong.’ I know that I will enjoy the rights
and privileges of all citizens.”
Judge Goodwin found the other requirements
for injunctive relief were easily satisfi
ed. “Forcing a girl to compete on the boys’
team when there is a girls’ team available
would cause her unnecessary distress and
stigma,” he wrote, and “would also be confusing
to coaches and teammates. And not only
would B.P.J. be excluded from girls’ sports
completely; she would be excluded because
of who she is: a transgender girl.” He also
found that it would be “clearly in the public
interest to uphold B.P.J’s constitutional right
to not be treated any differently from her
similarly situated peers because any harm
to B.P.J.’s personal rights is a harm to the
share of American rights that we all hold collectively.”
An appeal by the state to the Fourth Circuit
is unlikely to upset Judge Goodwin’s ruling.
The Fourth Circuit’s latest decision in the
Gavin Grimm case was issued less than a year
ago, and Democratic appointees still make up
a majority of the circuit bench, even counting
the three appointees who were elevated by
Trump.
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