Daniela cannot be Daniela in Bangui.
She is 31 years old, Cuban, and until recently worked at a beauty salon in Miami, where she lived as the woman she is.
Today she cuts her hair short, hardens her voice, and walks differently so that no one on the streets of the capital of the Central African Republic suspects that she is trans. 💔
The guards at the hotel where she is staying told her bluntly: you’d better not go out. In that country, being a trans woman can cost you your life.
Daniela does not have the documents to return to her country or the authorization to move freely. Her true hell is that she cannot flee: Daniela remains in a bureaucratic limbo because she has not been granted the visa or the travel authorization necessary to board a return flight.🛂⚠️
On August 12, she asked members of Congress for help, but for now the response they receive is the same: wait.
Subjected to forced confinement, maintaining an imposed masculinity solely to stay alive and living with the constant fear of being discovered by the neighbors.
“My life is in danger here”, Daniela repeats. And every morning when she goes out disguised as someone she is not, it confirms this to her once again.
Do you think international authorities and embassies should take emergency action when a person’s life is at risk because of their identity? 💬