The Harsh Reality of Some Transgender Lives

By Jake Finney

Hidden in the shadows of West Hollywood’s vibrant gay scene, Angeline, a transgender woman, is getting a manicure at one of the few nail shops willing to serve transgender clients. In the meantime, she is on the phone talking about the best places for clothes shopping, where she will actually be allowed to use the women’s dressing room. All of this is in preparation for a night out of dancing with her transgender girlfriends at downtown nightclub.

Angeline is an undocumented immigrant who has lived in L.A. for the past six years. She fled her home in Honduras in order to save her life. As a child she saw her gay uncle brutally beaten in the street by the other men in their town. As she grew into a young adult, her mother feared an even worse fate for her transgender daughter and gave her a small amount of money and told her to leave the country. She did not want to see her transgender daughter murdered, like so many of the other transgender women in Latin America, at the hands of their neighbors or the local police. Angeline’s only hope for survival was to move to the United States and apply for political asylum.

Once she arrived in the U.S., it took a while for her to find support and resources. She needs to save several thousand dollars to hire a new immigration lawyer. The last one she had ended up being a con artist who promised to help her apply for asylum but instead took all her cash and changed his phone number.

Unable to find work, she ended up homeless, and most homeless shelters are unwilling to accommodate a transgender woman. She spent a lot of time on the streets, where men frequently pressure her for sex. Eventually, like many of her friends, she found that the only way she is going to be able to provide for her basic needs and hire a new immigration lawyer is to start engaging in sex work.

Despite antidiscrimination laws, finding jobs can be extremely difficult for transgender women. Being undocumented only makes things more complicated. Recent studies published in Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and National Center for Transgender Equality showed that unemployment among transgender people is double the rate of the general population and more than 15% of trans individuals have been compelled to engage in the street economy for survival (such as doing sex work or selling drugs).

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