Last Updated on January 12, 2024 by Kittredge Cherry
Transgender women asylum seekers from Central America show the injustice faced by LGBTQ people trying to immigrate. LGBTQ refugees and asylum seekers from Ukraine and other parts of the world face hardships too. On the anniversaries of their deaths, transgender women Roxsana Hernandez and Johana Medina are remembered in portraits by Arizona artist Linda Victoria in her “En Memoriam” project honoring asylum seekers who did not survive the rigors of the U.S. border.
Both were HIV-positive Latina transgender women who died after being denied medical care during detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). They were seeking asylum partly because of the anti-transgender discrimination and violence they faced in their native countries.
All over the world, LGBTQ people face extra difficulties when they seek to immigrate. For example, the 2022 book “Asylum: A Memoir and a Manifesto” by Edafe Okporo tells his experiences growing up gay in Nigeria and enduring U.S. detention as he navigated the immigration system to gain asylum as a black, gay immigrant. In 2022 the United Nations called attention to the needs of Ukrainian LGBTQ refugees and asylum seekers.
Victoria incorporated individual portraits of them and 9 other asylum seekers into a digital image of Tucson’s El Tiradito Shrine, where candles of saints are often left. “Predatory times call for a humane, enduring response,” she wrote. “I offer this as a blessing to each of these people. May they be remembered with the dignity they so richly deserved.”
Remembering Roxsana and Johana
Roxsana Hernandez of Honduras died on May 25, 2018, in New Mexico at age 33. She is pictured at left in the portrait above. Known as “Roxy,” she arrived on May 9 as part of a group of about 25 queer, transgender and gender-nonconforming migrants who joined the annual caravan from Central America to the U.S.-Mexico border. She was set to be deported without seeing an immigration judge when she died in ICE custody due to pneumonia, dehydration and complications of HIV leading to cardiac arrest. A wrongful death lawsuit was filed.
A year later Johana Medina of El Salvador died in Texas on June 1, 2019 at age 25. Known to her friends as “Joa,” she was a certified nurse. In mid-May she passed her “credible fear” interview, which determined that she would be persecuted if she was sent back to El Salvador. But she was kept in ICE custody until she began complaining of chest pains. She was released to a hospital and died four days later. News reports told her story to the world.
These deaths call attention to a much larger problem. According to the forthcoming book “Queer and Trans Migrations: Dynamics of Illegalization, Detention, and Deportation,” more than a quarter of a million LGBTQ migrants in the United States lack documentation and are in constant danger of detention and deportation. LGBTQ migrants around the world face similar situations.
Their fears of violence back home were justified, even as Central American LGBTQ rights groups fight for justice and Costa Rica recently became the first Central American country to legalize same-sex marriage. Transwoman Camila Diaz Cordova came to the United States seeking asylum, but her request was denied. She was killed soon after being deported back to El Salvador. She died in January 2019 at age 29. Three police officers are charged with her murder.
A prayer for LGBTQ migrants
Q Spirit offers a prayer for LGBTQ migrants:
Loving God, we pray for LGBTQ people who have left their homes to seek safer and better lives. We lift up in love those who live under the weight of violence, fear and intolerance. May they be protected on their journeys and treated with dignity wherever they go. We commit to creating a world where all people live in peace, love, and justice, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation. Amen.
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Related link:
Transgender Day of Remembrance: Spiritual resources
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Top image credit: “Roxsana Hernandez-Rodriguez: En Memoriam” (left) and “Johana Medina-León: En Memoriam” (right). Both portraits are by Linda Victoria of Lacorua.com.
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This post is part of the LGBTQ Saints series by Kittredge Cherry. Traditional and alternative saints, people in the Bible, LGBT and queer martyrs, authors, theologians, religious leaders, artists, deities and other figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people and our allies are covered.
This article was originally published on Q Spirit in May 2020 and was updated for accuracy and expanded with new material on May 30,2022.
Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
Qspirit.net presents the Jesus in Love Blog on LGBTQ spirituality.
