Mexico City , September 17.- “Being a trans woman in Mexico represents a risk, because the country ranks second in murders of the LGBT+ community, and of these, 87 percent are directed at members of this sector who engage in sex work,” activist Kenya Cuevas Fuentes said in an interview with La Jornada .
According to data from the nongovernmental organization Transgender Europe, from 2008 to 2014, 649 attacks against trans people were reported in Mexico; while in 2022, the civil organization Letra S recorded 48 transfemicides.
The human rights defender described herself as a tenacious, warrior, and survivor of a system that still suffers discrimination and human rights violations. She also directs the civil association Casa de las Muñecas Tiresias (Casa de las Muñecas Tiresias) and the Tiresias shelters, which provide comprehensive care for trans people in Mexico.
Discrimination
At nine years old, Cuevas Fuentes witnessed the discrimination experienced for being different. Because of this, "I was expelled from my first support center, which was my own family, due to violence." She would later transition immediately after meeting a sex worker who took her to work on the streets.
It was in that same place that she came into direct contact with drugs. She explained that one of the first demands she received from her clients was that she use psychoactive substances. "At a young age, with various vulnerabilities, inequalities, and neglect, I became an easy target, and this led me to live on the streets for 20 years." Furthermore, "due to my lack of awareness about sexual contact" and a lack of information, she was diagnosed with HIV at age 13.
