Twinkle Paule, a transgender activist, migrated from Guyana to the United States of America two years ago. As the COVID-19 crisis deepened, she thought of her “sisters” back home and in neighbouring Suriname. For many of them, sex work is the only option for survival. She knew that the curfew would starve them of an income. And she was worried that some might wind up in trouble with the law if they felt forced to work at night.
After making contact with people on the ground, her concerns were confirmed. She made a personal donation, but knew it was not nearly enough.
“Being somebody who came from those same streets, I knew we had to mobilize to take care of our community. I know about lying down at home and owing a landlord … about getting kicked out because you can’t afford to pay rent,” Ms Paule said.
She collaborated with New York activists Cora Colt and Ceyenne Doroshow, founder of Gays and Lesbians in a Transgender Society (GLITS Inc), to start a GoFundMe campaign. After launching on 12 May they’ve already raised enough money to cover rent subsidies for one month for six transgender sex workers. The money has been forwarded to Guyana Trans United (GTU), the organization for which she worked as a peer educator when in 2015 she left sex work behind.
That she can now use her position of influence to mobilize emergency relief is itself a stunning success. When she migrated, she’d felt herself tottering on the brink of suicide. The emotional weight of exclusion and injustice was bearing down.
One successful asylum claim later, she’s now a full-time communications student at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. She completed her high-school education last year—something she hadn’t been able to do in Guyana. While studying she worked as an outreach officer for GMHC (Gay Men’s Health Crisis).
She seamlessly slipped into advocacy mode, addressing the city council last year about repealing New York State Penal Law § 240.37, a loitering law that is used to target transgender women. She immediately recognized that this was from the same tradition as the vagrancy laws she’d first been victimized by, and later fought against, in Guyana. Read more via UNAIDS