When Bruneth Flores first came to New York City in 2021, she entered as a gay man. Now in her second stay in the big city, she’s walking the Bronx streets as a proud transgender woman.
For the first time in 38 years, Flores will celebrate Trans Visibility Day, an opportunity to embrace the woman she’s become, in spite of transphobia that led her to leave her native El Salvador in 2017. She hopes to earn a “crown” when she walks her first fashion show runway at the Trans Visibility Awards show in Corona, Queens on Friday night.
“For me, it’s very symbolic because it’s my first time being in NYC in front of so many people as my true self, as a woman.” said Flores, who admitted that she’s also nervous.
Visibility is important for Flores.
In many ways, she’s often felt invisible with regard to her status as a transgender woman and as an immigrant attempting to achieve permanency in the United States. Flores’ immigration status — a temporary paperless stay granted to her from Mexico — comes to an end in May, and for roughly 11 months she’s been unable to find legal representation in her immigration case.
Flores is one of the many invisible cases of immigrants seeking asylum and permanency in efforts to afford a new life in America, but lack legal representation to navigate the city’s complex immigration process. Her story isn’t an uncommon one, particularly for trans women seeking asylum.
“My story is not the only one, there are 100s of trans women with a story like mine,” Flores said. “It’s so difficult. Someone says, ‘here’s a list of lawyers you can talk to,’ but no one wants to take my case.”
The National Center for Transgender Equality estimates that there are currently between 15,000 and 50,000 undocumented transgender immigrants living in the U.S. Those numbers are hard to estimate, as many people are reluctant to self-report as transgender due, in part, to fear of maltreatment by U.S. Immigration and Customs…
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