Our main picture (above): “Her name was Quelly da Silva.”
Renata Peron and the struggle of trans visibility in Brazil.
Renata Peron
It’s no surprise that the LGBTI+ community has a hard time in Brazil, but after the election of Jair Bolsonaro an openly homophobic and transphobic individual things took a turn for the worse.
But the community is not quiet and they are resisting according to Renata Peron, president of the CAIS (center of support and social of trans) “I’m lucky to be alive in 2007 I was a assaulted by a gang of 9 men, as a result a lost a kidney, but this gave me strength for fight for my trans sibling and for my community”.
“Lucky to be alive”
Recently we had horrific cases of violence against trans women in Brazil, the most recently was Quelly da Silva, that was murdered and had her heart ripped from her chest by the killer. According to Peron the most gruesome thing about Quelly‘ s case was the lack of respect of the mainstream media in Brazil “they don’t care about us, they only wrote about Quelly because the crime was really bizarre otherwise her death would be ignored like so many others are”.
The statistics of crimes against the Trans community in Brazil are scary, only last year 163 people were murdered.
During the last election Renata ran for Congress by the Socialism and freedom party (PSOL) , she had over 13.000 votes but unfortunately wasn’t elected, but she said she’ll still fight for her community from the streets.
Since 2016 the CAIS organize the walk for peace, the walk celebrates the national day of trans visibility in Brazil (29th of January), every year the event has a different theme but it’s always about respect and visibility. This year, CAIS is struggling to get sponsors, “we always set a fundraising for the event but this year it’s specially difficult to get people involved, this year our theme is Our Lives Matter”.
More about the IV walk for peace, and how to support their cause here (link in Portuguese).
By Nathalia Urban @FairyS