In Between - indigenous transgender women in Colombia
In the mountains of Colombia’s coffee region, colorful dressed transgender indigenous people work on lush green farms.
Back home in their communities, they are not accepted due to their transgender identity. They are punished or forced to leave their villages. The Emberá, the ethnical group they belong to, are convinced that it is a contagious disease that the white men have passed to them.
Nevertheless, on these coffee farms, they are accepted and have found a way to live their transgender identity. „I won´t go back to my community. Here I can finally be who I am and live my identity“, says Angelica, one of the women.
The situation of transgender and LGBT people in conservative and post-conflict Colombia is alarming. Despite advances made in recognizing their rights and the peace process, violence against LGBT people continues.
Being indigenous and transgender makes these women even more vulnerable, exposed to stigma, harassment, and exclusion. Nevertheless, they are groundbreakers - they are the first who found a way to escape and live their identities against the preconceptions of their own community.
