NEIGHBOURING Brazil holds the world record for hate-based LGBT murders. In 2016, over 300 hate killings were recorded. That roughly translates into one LGBT person being put to death approximately every day. One of those persons was Dandara dos Santos, a trans woman who was tortured and killed on video. In Chechnya, LGBT persons are abducted, tortured and killed by the police and other citizens of the state. In the U.S. last year 49 persons, a large number who identified as LGBT, were shot and killed in the Pulse nightclub. As of August 2017, there have been 33 hate-violence-related homicides of LGBT people, according to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence.

In Pakistan, LGBT persons are killed tortured or thrown out of their homes if they are even suspected of being gay. According to Trans-Action Alliance, close to 50 transgender persons have been killed in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa area over the last few years. Just last year, a trans woman was raped, filmed and then shot nine times, at point blank range. She was taken to a hospital but would later die, since she was refused treatment for over 17 hours due to her being trans. In Jamaica, LGBT persons, particularly trans women are frequently killed. Just this last month Dexter Pottinger, a designer and Jamaica’s ‘face’ of LGBT pride was murdered in his home. Shortly after, three LGBT persons were shot in New Kingston; one of them was a trans woman.

That trans woman was 32-year-old Thelma, who was thrown out of her home by her mother when anti-LGBT community members demanded that Thelma leave the community or her mother’s house would be burnt down. Thelma would leave and would later become a vendor in the Coronation Market where she would also be forced to leave when anti-LGBT persons became aware of her gender identity.

Thelma along with other LGBT persons would make the New Kingston Garage a place in which they felt some semblance of home and community. They would sleep there and ply their trades along the streets. However, drug dealers warned them that they should move or be killed, but they didn’t move.
When the drug dealers first came, Thelma wasn’t around. Two persons were shot, one escaped with just an injury. Despite knowing of the threats of the dealers and the shooting that happened just a few days earlier, Thelma would return to her spot, brave in the face of certain death, to prove that she had a right to be there.
Thelma had reportedly shirked at advice that she should not return to the spot to sell her wares; confident in herself and identity, she did not want to be a coward and to the last breath, stood up for the equal rights she knew she had a right to.

Amongst the LGBT community of New Kingston Garage, Thelma was known as someone who was unapologetically herself and encouraged others to embrace and love who they are. It is people like Thelma who have given me hope over the years and who continuously encourage me to love myself and all the queerness encapsulated within me. When you’re a queer person, struggling with things such as feelings of inferiority, gender dysphoria and self hate, you begin to look at those who are unapologetically themselves and you want to be as brave as them. You want to be able to wear what you want, say what you want and walk down the streets hand in hand with who you want. But there is always fear because the threat of violence is always around us.

Many will look at Thelma’s killing and state that she could have avoided it, that she was wrong to return to a spot that was only two days before fired upon. I look at Thelma’s death and I see a tragic loss of life yes, but I also see a direct challenge to the establishment, a challenge to the belief that we will slink quietly back into closets when we are threatened and attacked.
I see strength unmatched, strength I wish to possess within myself and I am proud of her. If anything, Thelma’s death should encourage us to stand firm in the face of hate, because no war was ever won by hiding behind doors and pseudo-identities. It will be hard and frightening and all those other adjectives, but it is necessary.

As I think of Thelma and all the Thelmas of the world who are harassed, ridiculed and killed just for being different from the heteronormative status quo that plagues our societies, Grace Nichols poem, “Epilogue,” comes to mind. The poem is succinct but powerful and it goes- “I have crossed an ocean/ I have lost my tongue/ from the root of the old one/ a new one has sprung.” While we might have lost the proud voice of one brave woman, more voices will pop up to fill the void. We are many, we are strong and we want you to know that we are not going anywhere, even when the threats against us are real and apparent.