“As a transvestite and reverend, my fight is for the right to live, be and exist”

Alexya Salvador is the first transvestite to complete the adoption process in Brazil, in addition to being the first ordained cleric in a Christian church in Latin America. She has degrees in Literature, Pedagogy and Theology. She believes her struggles are being who she is: mother, transvestite, reverend and human rights activist.

Daily, he deals with hate speech to the detriment of agendas that cross his life. In view of this, as a woman and a transvestite, she says “my fight is for the full right to live, be and exist”. It also proposes dialogues and practices for the emancipation of rights.

“It is a daily challenge to make it clear that, as a transvestite, my gender identity is not the motivator for the absence of rights.”

For Alexya, being a transvestite is a daily act of resistance and resilience. And she recalls that Brazil leads the ranking of the country that kills the most transvestites and transsexual women in the world, according to a dossier prepared by the National Association of Transvestites and Transsexuals (Antra).

According to the reverend, transphobia is a reality present in all social segments. She points out that society continues to perpetuate transphobia, which seems to have no end.

“When I leave my house to go to work, I find myself in a society that was not built for people like me. Violence, when it is physical, happens in looks, in words and in the lack of access to essential rights”.

Women who inspire your journey

In her life, she takes inspiration from strong women like Sylvia Rivera, a trans woman and a pioneer in the struggle for the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community in the 60s in the United States. She mentions that Sylvia is a reference for transvestites and transgender women.

Tereza de Benguela, leader of Quilombo do Quariterê, in Mato Grosso. She led a quilombo made up of a black and indigenous community, resisting slavery and defending the territory where she lived. Alexya emphasizes that her resistance and resilience, in the face of the death system that surrounded Tereza daily, is strength, a reference for her.

Finally, he mentions Carolina Maria de Jesus, one of the first black writers in Brazil. She recorded the daily life of the favela where she lived in notebooks she found in her work as a paper collector. Alexya talks about the author and her strength: “She did not accept that hunger and misery prevented her from changing the reality in which she was inserted”.

Fighting for the right to exist is a constant in Alexya Salvador’s life. It is in the search for space in such a transphobic society that she raises her voice. Besides her, how about meeting more amazing women?