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"I stay at home staring at the ceiling."
Geisha Collins Paul is a 39-year-old sex worker living in Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic.
Or, at least, that was before.
Since the COVID-19 outbreak began, he stopped exercising regularly.
The pandemic has been a severe blow to most informal workers, but for her it has been especially so for one reason: the name on her ID is Ronny, not Geisha.
Geisha is a transsexual woman.
PHOTO GALLERY |
One challenge after another for the 'trans' collective of Santo Domingo
In the Dominican Republic, as in many Latin American countries, transsexuals fight a daily battle.
They fight for equal access to social services and health care, against discrimination and social stigmatization which, in a conservative and Catholic society, can be considerable.
The health situation of the last two years has exacerbated inequalities, and this group is facing increasing difficulties in finding a job and accessing financial aid and medical care.
For them, the pandemic represents a “crisis within a crisis”, concludes a report by the Center for Documentation and Trans Situation of Latin America and the Caribbean (Cedostalc).
More information
The fight against intolerance towards the LGTB community also faces obstacles in Latin America
The Holy Alliance: transsexuals and the Catholic Church in the country of the Pope
The exile of Nicaraguan trans voices
In the case of Geisha, the number of her clients has decreased by 40%, but other sex workers interviewed by France Press have lost up to 80%.
In Santo Domingo, the night curfew has been maintained since last year, and those interested are ashamed to stop prostitutes in the light of day.
The woman shows the point on her shoulder where she was hit by a rock while luring men on the sidewalk.
Attacks against transsexuals are not exceptional.
"They throw bottles and stones at us," he complains.
"We have to hide like rats."
However, he assures that he likes his work: "I have always had a good time on the street."
At the same time, he acknowledges that he uses drugs "to get through the nights": ecstasy, marijuana and parakeet, the slang name for cocaine.
They throw bottles and rocks at us.
We have to hide like rats
Geisha Collins Paul, 39, sex worker and transsexual
“I've always been a queer,” Geisha explains as she gestures with her hands adorned with long artificial white nails. When she was 12 years old, her mother sent her to a school for children with special needs. There, her guardians tried to model her gender identity as a boy, for example, by forcing her into traditionally male activities, such as carpentry. "At school they tortured me for 14 years," he recalls. After a long time she reconciled with her family, who accepted her feminine identity and her occupation.
In the Dominican Republic, prostitution is in an area of legal uncertainty: it is not illegal, but it is not considered a regular job either.
As a result, sex workers often find it difficult to access social services and public subsidies.
According to a survey on the consequences of COVID-19 for the country's LGBT population on a sample of 462 participants, 75% are unemployed and 98% do not have access to financial aid from the Government.
Now Geisha earns some money cleaning houses and also receives support from the organization Transsa (Trans Siempre Amigas), where she works as an activist and militant.
Demonstration in favor of LGTBI rights in Santo Domingo on December 10, 2020, International Human Rights Day.
Click on the image to see the complete gallery.
Ana Valiño
Transsa is an organization that watches over the rights of transsexual and transgender people in the Dominican Republic. It was founded 15 years ago and offers psychological, medical and legal support to the group. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, it managed to register some 150 members of the LGTBI community in the government program
Stay at home
, which allocates 5,000 Dominican pesos (about 72 euros) per month to buy food.
Christian King, executive director of the NGO, confirms that the pandemic has exacerbated the economic precariousness of its members.
"Discrimination has also gotten worse," he adds.
Furthermore, the health crisis has highlighted the problems they face when applying for legal identity documents.
Without a card, not only are they not entitled to state aid, but they also cannot receive the coronavirus vaccine.
In the Dominican Republic there have so far been more than 350,000 cases and 4,000 deaths in a population of about 10 million, according to the WHO.
11 people belonging to the transsexual and transgender community in the Dominican Republic were murdered between 2019 and 2020
A demographic study cited by Unaids estimates that around 9,400 transgender people live in the Dominican Republic, although other reports cite different numbers. Of these, 27.7% are seropositive, a high percentage compared to 0.8% of Dominicans. Many work in the sex industry, either occasionally or regularly, or have done so in the past. According to King, although prostitution is the main source of income for most, for many it is not a professional choice, but the only way to earn a living.
Although information on HIV as a risk factor for covid-19 is still scarce, HIV-positive people are considered a risk population due to their immunosuppression. King explains that the pandemic has not affected the access of these chronic patients to medical services, mainly because they prefer to receive antiretroviral treatment through community and non-profit organizations, not through the public health system. "There they feel less discriminated against," he says. However, the director of the NGO also assures that many have experienced difficulties in getting a medical appointment, something that they need periodically to control their viral load. And they attribute it to the measures implemented to contain the virus, although little by little the situation is returning to normal. Even so,The Dominican Network of People Living with HIV has recently denounced the existence of a serious shortage of antiretroviral drugs, partly caused by delays in delivery due to the pandemic.
Agatha Brooks, 32, enjoys the sun on the roof of her house in Santo Domingo. Agatha is an HIV positive transsexual black woman, and lacks documentation. Click on the image to see the complete gallery. Ana Valiño
Agatha Brooks, 32, is a transgender black woman with no documentation. Five years ago she found out that she was HIV-positive and now she says that, in this time of pandemic, she feels privileged. He has a stable job, and for that reason his situation has not been affected. Brooks works at the Transsa Human Rights Observatory, where she supports those who have suffered gender-based violence. A few years ago, it was she who helped. In 2019, the police assaulted her when she was coming home from a birthday party. "I was beaten at the door of my house," he recalls. Before leaving, the officers told him: "We know where you live." She did not report the events.
According to King, the last year reported cases of violence against the LGTBI community in the Dominican Republic have decreased, probably as a result of the night curfew. Even so, a report by Transsa affirms that, between July 2019 and July 2020, 11 LGTBI hate murders were committed in the country.
Violence is not a problem unique to the Dominican Republic. According to Trans Murder Monitoring, 350 members of the transsexual and transgender community were murdered between October 2019 and September 2020. Of the victims with a known profession, 62% were sex workers. In total, between 2008 and 2020 there were 3,664 registered murder cases in 75 countries. The document states: "The data shows an alarming trend of a gradual increase in the crime rate between 2008 and 2020." In addition, "as a result of covid-19 and the increase in racism and police brutality, the lives of transsexual and transgender people are in danger."
In July, the Chamber of Deputies approved an amendment to the Penal Code that eliminates sexual orientation and gender as two grounds that lead to a crime of discrimination. According to King, this represents a step back in the fight for LGTBI rights in the country.
The Dominican Republic does not have a law on gender identity. Transsa works in this direction, but the road is still long. "The state is very conservative (...) and there is a lot of interference from different churches," says King. Currently, transsexuals can change their legal name on identity documents, but only by executive decree. However, they cannot change gender. However, many do not have documentation of any kind. Brooks, for example, was born in the Bahamas and moved to the Dominican Republic when he was two years old. Due to the neglect of his parents, he says, he does not have a Dominican or Bahamian passport. As part of her activism, she fights for a gender identity law that allows her to declare the gender of her choice on her first passport. In the meantime,she takes birth control pills to make her breast grow. She would like to have sex reassignment surgery, but it is too expensive for her.
People think that we [transgender people] are Martians
Franchesca Gabriella Montez, 27 years old
For some, the decision not to undergo this type of surgery is not due to financial reasons.
Franchesca Gabriella Montez, 27, is Francisco on her identity document.
"If I changed the gender, they would still discriminate against me more," he laments.
“I graduated as a Franchesca,” she says, proudly showing a photo in which she appears in a cap and gown.
However, when he got a job at a call center, he was asked to cut his hair and dress like a man.
Currently, he works cleaning houses in Santo Domingo.
Earn about 4,000 pesos (57 euros) a month.
"It is not enough," he laments.
From an economic point of view, the pandemic "is a very difficult time."
At age 14, Francisco was raped by a man from his neighborhood. His metamorphosis began two years later. For her, Franchesca and Francisco are two different personalities, “two lives in one world”. Francisco was a lonely and isolated individual, a victim of bullying, with an alcoholic father and a mother who died prematurely. When it became Franchesca, it gave itself the opportunity to be reborn. He never reported his rapist. "I still see him in the neighborhood, walking with his family," says the young woman.
Like Geisha and Ágatha, Franchesca does not feel accepted by Dominican society. "People think that we are Martians," he ironically. “But we are all the same. Someday, we will all turn to dust. " Although they have followed different paths, the three women have turned their wounds into art and activism for LGTBI rights. In the documentary
Media Luna they
tell their stories. Ágatha is a poet, and Franchesca is writing a book with which she would like to bring hope to victims of homophobic hatred. "In my book I make them see that there are opportunities," he explains. "In the middle of the darkness there is a ray of light."
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