In every region of the world, there are key populations who are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection. One of the key populations is transgender women, who are at 34 times greater risk of acquiring HIV than other adults.

Discrimination, abuse, harassment and violence are distressingly common experiences for transgender people. They often face, from a young age, stigma, discrimination and social rejection in their homes and communities for expressing their gender identity. Such discrimination, violence and criminalization prevent transgender people from getting the HIV services they need to stay healthy.

Transgender women who also are involved in sex work are even more likely to be subjected to such treatment, as shown in a study from the Dominican Republic.

GENEVA, 30 March 2022—In the lead-up to the International Transgender Day of Visibility, on 31 March, UNAIDS has launched an initiative to raise awareness among parents, teachers and the wider community about gender identity during childhood.

The Unbox Me campaign advocates for the rights of transgender children. Most children love to have boxes or hidden places in which they can hide precious trinkets or prized possessions safely and securely. The hidden objects can reveal a lot about the child—who he or she is, what he or she likes and what his or her dreams are. For some transgender children, this act of hiding treasures in a box becomes a way of hiding their identity from disapproving eyes. Unbox Me is about giving transgender children visibility. It is a call for inclusion and acceptance.

In India, more than 90% of transgender people leave their homes or are thrown out by the age of 15 years. Inevitably, many live on the street with no money or education, often relying on sex work. Despite the campaign originating from India, its theme of acceptance and inclusion is universal.

Transgender people around the world are often marginalized and experience discrimination and violence. As a result, transgender people have a 34 times greater risk of acquiring HIV than other adults. Up to 24 countries in the world criminalize or prosecute transgender people. For example, early in the COVID-19 response, some governments instituted gender-specific mobility days during lockdowns, which resulted in arrests against transgender people out on the “wrong” day.

Stigma, discrimination and criminalization tend to make transgender and gender-diverse people invisible, with extreme forms of discrimination leading to even the denial of the existence of gender-diverse people.

This campaign is part of an ongoing UNAIDS collaboration with advertising agency FCB India. Last year, UNAIDS partnered with FCB and released a successful short film, The Mirror, as part of the #SeeMeAsIAm campaign about a young boy looking in the mirror and dressing up as a woman. The film served to raise awareness among parents, teachers and the wider community about gender identity during childhood. Building on the film, Unbox Me seeks to bring home the reality of the many transgender children who are denied their true identity. 

Swati Bhattacharya, FCB India’s Creative Chairperson, who conceptualized this campaign, said, “In India, children usually have a box which they use to store their most precious possessions, but in the case of transgender children they need to hide their box of treasures, since some of their most precious possessions don’t fit the gender norm that society expects them to conform to.”

UNAIDS works closely with the transgender community, civil society organizations and governments all around the world to decriminalize transgender people, secure their rights and ensure that they have access to health, education and social protection and that they are protected from abuse and exploitation.

“Many of us take our gender identity for granted, but for many children it is not so easy. It’s a matter of daily survival, a daily struggle,” said Mahesh Mahalingam, the UNAIDS Director of Communications and Global Advocacy. “Children all around the world must be supported in expressing their identity freely.”

In India, the Unbox Me campaign has garnered support among the education community. Teachers in many schools across India are using the boxes featured in the campaign as a conversation starter to raise awareness about gender identity.

Many prominent personalities and community leaders have also participated in the Unbox Me campaign, notably Indian film director Zoya Akhtar and television anchor Barkha Dutt.

UNAIDS is now extending the campaign to the global level.

If you would like to participate in the campaign or share your thoughts, contact UNAIDS at Communications@unaids.org.

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

Una is a coastal city of just over 20 000 inhabitants in the Brazilian state of Bahia. Fourteen years ago, Rihanna Borges left her little piece of paradise behind, to arrive at a much larger metropolis: São Paulo. “I needed to be reborn as a person and have the freedom to be who I really was. I wanted to be Rihanna, this trans woman whose essence could not safely emerge in my home town.”

Her decision reflects the decisions made by many transgender people, who, at some point, need to move away from their families to live life fully. When she recognized herself as a transgender woman, she had her mother’s unspoken support and recognition, but got no support from her father, triggering conflict and rejection that brought her a lot of suffering.

“Imagine coming out in a small town, with deep conservative and sexist roots. I could suffer any kind of violence. When I left Una I knew I was not that person my father expected. I had to leave my roots and throw myself into the world, so that I could be entirely me,” said Ms Borges. She has now reconciled with her father and has, in her words, a “nice” relationship with her family.

“Stigma and discrimination steals our identity as human beings, destroying us, turning us into unimportant people, who can be abused, mistreated, violated. So, the support of our families is critical because the world outside is cruel and destructive,” she said.

Ms Borges is one of the residents of Casa Florescer, a pioneering transgender welcoming centre located in the city of São Paulo, which hosts them while providing housing and access to mental health and other health-care support. Owing to increased vulnerabilities, stigma and discrimination, inequalities and disrupted family ties, among other reasons, the transgender women served by Casa Florescer come from extremely vulnerable backgrounds, having a history of adopting, and being exposed to, higher risk behaviours, including unsafe sex and use of drugs.

In this context, UNAIDS launched in 2021 an innovative initiative, the FRESH Project, to engage transgender women in understanding combination HIV prevention, focusing on pre-exposure prophylaxis, post-exposure prophylaxis and harm reduction. Through the project, the participants are rewarded for positive behaviour change to reinforce positive behaviours and reduce their vulnerability and the impact of inequalities.  

The first initiative of the FRESH Project in Brazil saw the voluntary participation of 22 of the 30 transgender women residents of the Casa Florescer, including Ms Borges.

The participants were trained in photography in sessions promoted by the American photographer Sean Black, who specializes in portraying lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people, especially people living with HIV. During the sessions, the participants reflected on their daily lives through their photographs.

“It was incredible to realize, over the days, how many of the women had a very negative opinion of themselves, reflecting the stigma they suffer from society. They discovered themselves as the beautiful and unique people they are and understood how fundamental it is to take care of themselves,” said Mr Black. “The photographs that I took, and the ones that they also took, reveal the essence of each one of them and how they are people who dream and want to be happy, like everyone else,” he added.

Ariadne Ribeiro Ferreira, the UNAIDS Brazil Community, Gender and Human Rights Officer, who is a transgender woman, highlighted that one of the objectives of the FRESH Project was to show that transgender sisterhood also means strengthening the path of self-respect, self-love and self-care. “Stigma and discrimination, associated with society’s punitive logic, only increases the social abyss that the most vulnerable groups are forced to face. Therefore, positive reinforcement, in this case represented by photographic art, is transformative and a path to a process of personal and collective change.”

“When I saw my photos after the photography sessions, I realized how powerful is to show our essence, the beauty that each one of us has. I felt it strengthened in me the certainty of how important it is, first of all, that we take care of ourselves, love ourselves, in order to pass this love on to other people and face stigma and discrimination,” said Ms Borges.

Marcia John (not her real name), a Guyanese transgender woman, readied to leave a transgender support group meeting. She slipped off her black wig, replacing it with a bandana and hat. Her employer only allows her to perform her duties if she presents as a man.

“I have no choice,” she said. “I have to work.”

In 2018, the Caribbean Court of Justice ruled that an 1893 Guyana law that prohibited cross-dressing was unconstitutional. Last August, lawmakers formally removed that section from the law books. But for Ms John and other transgender women, this has not been enough to transform the way they navigate social spaces. Intolerant attitudes remain, with sometimes dire implications for transgender people’s welfare and livelihoods.

Led by the University of the West Indies Rights Advocacy Project, the cross-dressing law challenge started with a constitutional action filed in the Guyana High Court in 2010. Eight years and two appeals later, the litigants earned a historic win.

“At the heart of the right to equality and non-discrimination lies a recognition that a fundamental goal of any constitutional democracy is to develop a society in which all citizens are respected and regarded as equal,” the Caribbean’s final appellate court ruled in 2018.

Reflecting on the impact of the landmark law reform effort, Alessandra Hereman, Guyana Trans United (GTU) Project Coordinator, said that the main benefit has been more visibility.

“The community’s increased media presence in the lead-up to the case brought transgender issues into the public space. People realized that transgender Guyanese exist and are part of our society. Some thought we should be treated equally and others held on to their religious beliefs. But transgender issues were brought to the fore and were part of public discourse,” she said from GTU’s Georgetown office.

Formed in 2012, GTU has worked over the past decade to facilitate the dialogue and sensitization that are needed alongside key law and policy reforms to create a safe and empowering social context for transgender people. They contribute to the ongoing effort to shift the attitudes and perceptions of health-care providers around sexual orientation and gender identity. This work strengthens the community’s access to health services, including HIV prevention, testing and treatment. With support from UNAIDS, GTU also trained journalists on covering transgender people and issues ethically and accurately.

“Law reform is essential, but it is not a stand-alone,” said James Guwani, the Director of the UNAIDS Caribbean Sub-Regional Office. “Alongside strategies like judicial review and political advocacy, there must be ongoing community dialogue and targeted efforts to increase social inclusion.”

At present, GTU has two high law and policy reform priorities. First, Guyana’s Prevention of Discrimination Act of 1997 makes no mention of sexual orientation or gender identity.

“Employers use the lack of this protected status to discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons. Amending that legislation would mean that if you violate the rights of an LGBT person there would be some mechanism for redress. Having that in place will tell people you can’t discriminate because there will be consequences,” Ms Hereman explained.

The CARICOM Secretariat, through the Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP), has developed a model anti-discrimination bill to guide Caribbean countries in creating anti-discrimination laws. PANCAP continues to advocate with regional stakeholders, including policymakers, for countries to adopt the model as it provides for the protection of persons against discrimination, including discrimination involving harassment, victimisation and vilification on the grounds of HIV status, sexual orientation, etc. It is hoped that the model will lead to more access to health care for key populations with the overarching goal of a Caribbean free of AIDS and new HIV infections, in which all people are happier, healthier, productive, safe and respected. Next on GTU’s list is the revision of the Teachers’ Code of Conduct to be inclusive of the needs of LGBT students.

“They must know that they have a duty to create an enabling environment for all students so that LGBT pupils have an opportunity to learn without bullying,” Ms Hereman said.

Lack of gender recognition legislation and the criminalization of sex between people of the same sex remain challenges in the Guyana and wider Caribbean contexts. The United Caribbean Trans Network has mounted a campaign around gender identity recognition, while the Society against Sexual Orientation Discrimination is working to remove Sections 351 to 353 of the Criminal Law (Offences) Act, which make sex between men punishable with life imprisonment. However, GTU is first prioritizing issues that it says go to the heart of transgender’s people’s ability to get an education and access employment. Exclusion from these spaces compounds their vulnerability to poverty, violence and disease.

“We occupy the lowest socioeconomic level in society. Guyana is now an oil-producing nation. LGBT people should have opportunities as well,” Ms Hereman insisted.

Nachbaja.com is one of the first transgender-led start-ups in India. One of seven grantees of the UNAIDS Solidarity Fund from India, it is an artist aggregator platform that aims to empower talented artists from the transgender and wider lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community across the country. Since Nachbaja.com’s start-up in 2017, the aim has been to leverage India’s growing event organization market to set up direct linkages between artists and customers, alleviating the need for brokers, who may take a share of the artists’ income.

Operational in an offline capacity primarily so far in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the start-up has shown the way for economic empowerment to many among the transgender community. Leveraging the grant received through the UNAIDS Solidarity Fund in 2021, Nachbaja.com aims to create a first-of-its kind online app that will allow artists and customers to register directly and enable them to receive fair and complete remuneration for their services. The journey of Nachbaja.com has symbolized the amalgamation of innovation with determination and has already brought change even before its implementation.

One of the key figures behind the social enterprise is Reshma Prasad, the founder of Nachbaja.com, an activist and advocate for the rights of the transgender community in India. For this interview, Ms Prasad joined us virtually from Nachbaja.com’s new office, which her team has now set up using the grant received from the Solidarity Fund. When asked how she felt about this office, Ms Prasad said with a smile, “Earlier, we didn’t even have a place. Now, we can call our community members, customers and other partners to this office. This is developing faith among these stakeholders. If we can develop the app successfully, I think it will be revolutionary for the community.”

Ms Prasad has been actively engaging the community, leading economic empowerment projects such as the production of sanitary pads, which were distributed among slum-dwellers in Bihar, and spreading awareness about the rights of the transgender community in India. She said that the idea of leading a start-up started brewing in her mind when she saw the first few community engagement activities spark interest and motivation among community members to do more.

In India, it is common for members of the transgender community to perform in events. In fact, Ms Prasad notes that they have been a historical part of the culture of India. However, due to the relatively unorganized nature of the work, she said that brokers or agents normally take a significant share of the artists’ income. In 2017, she decided to set up Nachbaja.com to connect artists to customers directly (and digitally), allowing them to take ownership of their skills and services without the need for a broker.

From 2017 to being able to register the start-up in 2020, the journey was long and arduous for Ms Prasad. In 2017, she applied to the Government of Bihar’s Start-Up Ideas scheme and her application was accepted. While she received support from the government, she was unable to register the company due to the need for a Permanent Account Number (PAN) Card, which at the time only included two gender options, male and female. At that time, Ms Prasad realized that the issue was bigger than herself—she was fighting a battle for the community. A legal petition was filed by her, which was successful in making provisions for transgender people to acquire a PAN Card in India. Ms Prasad became the first transgender woman to have a PAN Card in her name. Overcoming this challenge was not just a victory for Ms Prasad and Nachbaja.com, it had a ripple effect across the transgender community in India. About the opportunities this reform presents, she said, “So far, over 1 to 1.5 lakh [100 000 to 150 000] members of the transgender community have received a PAN Card. They can now successfully open bank accounts, purchase property and take out loans.”

The next challenge for her were the hardships imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. With events coming to a standstill during the lockdown and limited-capacity events being run after the lockdowns, there was initial apprehension. But just like any other challenge, the community was able to tackle it with the use of some innovation. Nachbaja.com recorded videos of artists’ performances and screened them through a projector virtually during events.

“The COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t an easy time for us. Events came to a halt and, with that, our source of income. But when Nachbaja.com came up with the idea to screen our performances through a projector virtually, we were relieved. We could use our talents to continue earning a livelihood without putting ourselves at risk of catching the virus,” said Hansika, an artist associated with Nachbaja.com.

Discrimination and prejudice are battles that the transgender community fight every day. Ms Prasad believes that the reason we still do not see many transgender-led enterprises is because of misplaced apprehension about them. Through Nachbaja.com, she hopes to set an example that a social enterprise, when supported economically, can generate sustainable economic and social value. She wants people to realize that, “They [the transgender community] don’t have to be products. They can be producers too.”

Ms Prasad’s vision for the distant future of Nachbaja.com is for it to become a community-driven online platform that also encompasses infotainment. She hopes to connect with communities of LGBTI people, sex workers and people living with HIV and to promote user-generated content on the app. She has also discussed adding information on HIV awareness and prevention on the platform.

Chandni, another artist from the transgender community associated with Nachbaja.com, is optimistic about the potential of an online app, since it would alleviate the need for agents, who charge large commissions. She said, “When the app comes to fruition, we would be able to interact with customers and other artists directly so that they can see us for who we are. Moreover, we would not need to travel long distances to get our payments and negotiate, since everything would be online.”

Ms Prasad is confident about the potential of the app due to the growth of online apps in India. So far, her team has spoken to about 27 app developers in India to find someone who can align with their vision. The next immediate goal for the team is to find someone who understands not only the technological expectations but also the nuances of the community in order to deliver the best product possible.

The app development is the next step in this journey of innovation, creativity and determination that fuels Nachbaja.com.

La Beauté and Style salon, created by UNAIDS Solidarity Fund grantee Gaurav Trust, opened its doors to customers in September 2021. Located in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India, it is one of the few Indian salons that is established, managed and run by members of the transgender community. The salon is a social enterprise set up to provide socioeconomic support and to address the age-old, yet deeply woven, stigma that the community faces in India.

“There are skilled and talented individuals from the community who fail to make a mark in the beauty industry because of stigma surrounding their identities. I know of a transwoman who was let go from a salon despite being an exceptional worker,” said Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, a key member of the social enterprise.

Despite the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019, the transgender community continues to face denial and rejection in areas such as employment, health and public services. 

Ms Narayan Tripathi has been a transgender activist since 1999 and has seen discourse evolve from HIV to now encompass funding opportunities and social enterprises led by the community. Aryan Pasha, who is a lawyer, activist and India’s first transgender man bodybuilder, and Ms Narayan Tripathi are both board members of the Gaurav Trust, a community-based organization working on the promotion and protection of the health and rights of sex workers, gay men and other men who have sex with men and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community, and young people. Its programmes specially focus on using its networks to strengthen project management, skills-building and livelihood support to nurture a self-sustaining community. Despite their collective advocacy and action over the years to advance the welfare, rights and health of transgender people, stigma remains a major challenge.

While the Gaurav Trust team acknowledge that breaking stigma is a long process, they also believe that change is inevitable. By recruiting and engaging community members, La Beauté and Style salon is an opportunity for the team to establish a platform promoting socioeconomic inclusion. It will provide a conducive space for many interested people to leverage beauty and grooming training facilities and develop essential skills, enabling them to earn a livelihood.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw people from the community who had lost jobs and had no place to live. So why not have a space where our own people can feel safe and comfortable and also create jobs and experts from within the community?” said Mr Pasha. To uphold this vision, 70% of people employed at the La Beauté and Style salon will belong to the transgender community.

The uplifting reaction from the community towards social entrepreneurship models encouraged Ms Narayan Tripathi to leverage her network to mobilize additional funding from partners and local bodies to sustain and grow the enterprise. Through the example of La Beauté and Style salon in Ghaziabad, they have been successful in creating a pipeline of other diverse social entrepreneurship projects led by the transgender community for the coming months. The team believes that interesting entrepreneurial ideas that exist within the community can succeed if funding is made available.

Established to support vulnerable populations to survive the immediate impact of the socioeconomic crises exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the UNAIDS Solidarity Fund is a critical instrument in building sustainable income mechanisms.

“Through these tools of self-reliance, we are nurturing a variety of leaders. Today, our diverse grantees are enhancing community leadership to set the path for future entrepreneurs. And the community-led social enterprises are ultimately working towards the collective objective of inclusion and socioeconomic prosperity,” said Nandini Kapoor Dhingra, Community Support Adviser at the UNAIDS Country Office for India.

For the fellow grantees of the Solidarity Fund, this project has set a precedent for sustainability and growth beyond the seed funding. As a message to the fellow grantees, Ms Narayan Tripathi said, “From the point of seed funding, it is important to think of sustainability. It remains essential to look for partners and local funders to enhance the project. It takes hard work and advocacy, but success is certain.”

Currently, the second cohort of community members is being trained in Pune, which will host the newest franchise of La Beauté and Style salon. Through this journey of hope, highs and lows, community members have been keen to grow and uplift the socioeconomic fabric of the transgender community in India. 

Watch this social enterprise featured on Indian national television.

The Trinidad and Tobago transgender activist and community leader Brandy Rodriguez has died.

Ms Rodriguez was a stalwart of national and regional efforts to advance the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. She was the President of the Trinidad and Tobago Transgender Coalition (TTTC). Through her collaboration with the United Caribbean Trans Network (UCTRANS) and the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Transgender People, she contributed to the movement for increased visibility, advocacy and community organization around gender identity issues. She also contributed to policymaking and workplace engagement efforts, including as a member of the Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS.

But her impact went even deeper. As a peer navigator for many years at the Family Planning Association of Trinidad and Tobago (FPATT), Ms Rodriguez provided direct support to members of the transgender community, including street-based sex workers.

She also supported transgender people living with HIV to access testing, treatment and care services. Among Caribbean countries that have reported on HIV prevalence for transgender people, the median HIV prevalence is more than 27%, far higher than that among any other key population group. Ms Rodriguez worked to ensure that members of this community not only started treatment but stayed the course.

From the base of the TTTC in Tunapuna, Trinidad and Tobago, Ms Rodriguez worked to ensure that the most marginalized people in her community had access to food, health care and mental health support. During the COVID-19 pandemic, her organization coordinated relief for transgender people who had lost their means of generating income.

This May she was recognized by Queen Elizabeth II for her advocacy and service when she received the 180th Commonwealth Point of Light award.

“Brandy fought fearlessly against discrimination. And in this fight, she didn’t just ask for recognition or plead for equal access to quality health care, but she made the point that it was a right that must come without conditions. She was determined to settle for nothing less,” a release from FPATT said.

In 2018, she addressed journalists at a regional media sensitization hosted by the UNAIDS Caribbean Sub-Regional Office and the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition. For most of the reporters it was their first time speaking to a transgender person and hearing how stereotypes and prejudice in their reporting were harmful to the community.

“For 22 years it has been an uphill battle, especially in the Caribbean. My conviction to not be silenced and to help vulnerable people keeps me committed to my goal of a better, more inclusive future for all,” Ms Rodriguez said.

The Director of the UNAIDS Caribbean Sub-Regional Office, James Guwani, recognized Ms Rodriguez for her work as a voice for the voiceless.

“She shows why it is imperative that we support community organizations with the ability to connect to those who are hardest to reach. At a time that the global HIV response is focusing on ending inequalities and supporting community-led interventions, we draw inspiration from Ms Rodriguez’s life and work,” he noted.

“The mother of the LGBTI community of Trinidad and Tobago has gained her wings,” said Alexus D’Marco, UCTRANS’ Executive Director. “The work of Brandy Rodriguez will not be forgotten and we must ensure that it continues.”

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) in Thailand has been awarded the inaugural Circle of Excellence Award at the Fast-Track cities 2021 conference, held recently in Lisbon, Portugal. The Circle of Excellence Award showcases outstanding work in fast-tracking the HIV response and advancing innovative programming to end the AIDS epidemic in cities by 2030.

“To receive the Circle of Excellence Award for Bangkok is a great honour. It demonstrates not only the past achievements but, moreover, the future commitment to accelerate the HIV response and towards ending AIDS in Bangkok. We are proud that innovations have produced remarkable results, particularly same-day antiretroviral therapy and key population-led health services, such as specialized and holistic services for transgender people and the scale-up of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) programmes. These innovations are not only applied in Bangkok but have become models for the region,” said Parnrudee Manomaipiboon, the Director-General of the Department of Health, BMA, during the award ceremony.

Organized by the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care, in collaboration with UNAIDS, the Fast-Track Cities Institute and other partners, the Fast-Track cities conference highlighted successes achieved across the Fast-Track cities network, addressed cross-cutting challenges faced by local stakeholders and shared best practices in accelerating urban HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis B and C responses.

“Bangkok has put in place a 14-year strategic plan for ending AIDS from 2017 to 2030, which is under the leadership of the Bangkok Fast-Track Committee,” said Pavinee Rungthonkij, the Deputy Director-General, Health Department, BMA. “During COVID-19, BMA and partners have introduced innovations such as multimonth antiretroviral therapy, an express delivery of antiretroviral therapy service, sexually transmitted infection self-sampling and PrEP,” she added. Among other achievements, Bangkok has expanded its PrEP services to 16 municipal public health centres and eight city hospitals and implemented citywide awareness campaigns. PrEP in the City was the first citywide PrEP campaign focusing on transgender people in Asia.

“Significant progress has been made in the HIV response since Bangkok joined the Paris Declaration to end the AIDS epidemic in cities in 2014. It shows that mutual commitments and a strengthened partnership between stakeholders at all levels are key to an effective HIV response. Bangkok will continue to leverage support, scale up innovations and Fast-Track solutions to achieve the 2025 targets and end AIDS by 2030,” said Patchara Benjarattanaporn, the UNAIDS Country Director for Thailand.

“This is the name I identify with, and I was determined to have it recognized legally,” said Dimas Cahya (his real name isn’t used in this article), a transgender man from Medan, Indonesia.

Medan, a city of more than 2.4 million people, is a long way from Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta. In Jakarta and Java, Indonesia’s most populated island, many transgender people have successfully changed their legal name to match their gender identity. However, this had never been done in Medan. Similar to the rest of the country, Medan is conservative, with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people and issues deemed “immoral”. This was the challenge that Amek Adlian, the paralegal assigned to this case, had to face.

Mr Amek saw Mr Cahya’s strong will and determination and started on research on the process of legally changing one’s name. “I wanted to get all the steps right, from gathering the required documents to preparing for the court hearing. I used my connections to consult with friends who have gone through the process in Jakarta, and got some very useful tips,” he said.

Unfortunately, not everyone who was consulted was supportive or helpful. Mr Amek recalls meeting with a legal aid organization in Medan where Mr Cahya was asked invasive questions, leaving them feeling discouraged and ridiculed. “We reached out for legal advice, but instead we got judgements,” Mr Amek said.  

Despite that, Mr Cahya’s determination never faded, and after more consultations with people in Jakarta, Mr Cahya and Mr Amek decided to go through with the court process to apply for the name change, citing “bullying” as the reason for the request. The court process stalled due to incomplete documentation. The court required an official document that shows the preferred name for Mr Cahya. “We were scrambling around looking for something that the court would accept. I asked friends in Java for their guidance, but they had never been asked for such a document before. I feared that this was an effort to complicate our case,” said Mr Amek. Eventually, they submitted a certificate from a public-speaking training that Mr Cahya had just participated in, and, unexpectedly, this certificate was approved.

“Facing the judge was nerve-wracking. The judge stressed that my request to change my full name (as opposed to just the spelling), would “erase my identity”. I had my mother with me as a witness, and she was also very nervous, despite us having briefed her prior. It was a such a relief and a surprise that the judge did not dig out any information about my gender. He stayed out of LGBTI issues completely,” Mr Cahya said.

After a six-week court process, their application was granted by the Medan District Court, and Mr Cahya became the first transgender man in Medan to legally change his name to match his identity.

Mr Cahya is not unfamiliar with being first: he was also the first transgender man to undergo medical transition in Medan, a process which came with its own set of challenges. Despite the many obstacles throughout the whole process, Mr Cahya’s optimism never faltered. “If it had not been approved, I would simply try again in Jakarta,” he said. This is only the beginning of his journey. “Next for me is to change the gender on my identity card,” he said, as his current identity card still uses the gender assigned to him at birth.

The whole process was supported by the Crisis Response Mechanism (CRM) Consortium, which is a consortium made up of the UNAIDS Country Office for Indonesia and four civil society organizations (Community Legal Aid Institute, Sanggar Swara, Arus Pelangi and GWL INA) whose mission is to respond to and mobilize resources for LGBTI emergency crises. Mr Amek himself is a paralegal with the CRM Consortium as well as a community organizer for Cangkang Queer, an LGBTI community organization based in Medan. 

Mr Amek credits the CRM Consortium for supporting this work. “Not only did CRM fund the process, but they also capacitate us as paralegals to be able to do such work and learn from each other. For me, learning from other cities was very useful. Now that Medan has done it too, I am happy to share my own lessons with paralegals working with LGBTI communities,” he said.

“Transgender communities are one of the most vulnerable groups in Indonesia. Legal recognition in the form of an identity card, particularly one that matches with the person’s true identity, is a human right that sadly is not enjoyed by everyone equally. This success gives us hope that progress is possible despite the unfavorable environment we are in,” the UNAIDS Country Director for Indonesia, Krittayawan Boonto, said. 

Since Mr Amek and Mr Cahya’s experience is the first in Medan, it is no surprise that some transgender men and women have reached out to them to discuss the process of name change, medical transition, etc. Mr Cahya and Mr Amek both agree that the first and most important step is self-acceptance. “The process will be difficult, especially in a country like Indonesia where we are not yet embraced,” Mr Amek said.

Mr Cahya echoed this sentiment, adding, “You should never give up. Set targets for yourself and remember that despite the challenges, you should not assume the worst will happen.” Mr Cahya’s infectious optimism gives light and hope to the lives of gender-diverse people all around the country beyond his hometown of Medan.