Words almost fail to describe the torrent of emotions I felt upon learning of the vicious hate crime that took the life of my compatriota, Mexican trans activist Agnes Torres last month in Puebla state.
A boiling sense of outrage, disbelief, dismay, shock, mournful resignation �" and even a considerable amount of survivor's guilt.
Torres's fate, after all, could very easily have been my own, had things been slightly different for me a decade ago.
It was about 10 years ago that I requested and was granted asylum in the United States after coming to the San Francisco Bay Area seeking a more LGBT-friendly environment. Had I not been as fortunate and been forced to remain in my native Mexico, is there any reason not to think that it would have been only a matter of time until I might find the same fate as Torres?
While some progress has undoubtedly been made by Mexican LGBT activists in the last 10 years, it's hate crimes such as Torres's horrific murder that painfully remind us how much more needs to be done �" in Mexico and throughout Latin America.
In Mexico, violent backlash against anyone who is considered challenging the status quo is still far too frequent, and the federal law enforcement mechanisms still far too ineffectual in most cases to enforce the anti-discrimination laws that are already on the books.
I really cannot overemphasize how dangerous a country like Mexico can be to anyone who doesn't go along with "how it's always been done": when they were young, my own parents narrowly escaped the 1968 student massacre in which hundreds of students were killed in cold blood by soldiers, just a few days before the start of the Olympic Games in Mexico City. Those students were ruthlessly massacred simply for daring to ask for more democracy in Mexico through peaceful and lawful public protests.
Just as my own parents barely escaped the bloody 1968 Tlatelolco massacre, I was just fortunate enough to seek asylum in the United States in the early 21st century, just as American authorities first began recognizing the very real risk of persecution faced in Latin America by anyone whose real or perceived gender identity doesn't match the gender they were assigned at birth.
Of course, hate crimes against transgender, genderqueer, or gender non-conforming people can happen almost anywhere in the world; it has been almost 10 years since the world lost another beautiful transgender Latina, Gwen Araujo, in a hate crime that happened right here in the Bay Area.
Unlike what happened in the Araujo case, it is highly unlikely that Torres's murderers will ever be brought to trial; Mexican law enforcement is notoriously inefficient even in instances that don't involve presumed hate crimes. To make matters worse, at least one Mexican politician made scornful remarks about Torres shortly after she was found murdered.
I believe that the best way to honor the memories of beautiful women like Araujo and Torres is to continue fighting for justice and equality, wherever we happen to be, and to never allow ourselves (as trans people or allies) to be intimidated by the sheer amount of hatred, bigotry, and intolerance that's out there.
That is the only way we can continue to make progress toward exactly the kind of world that women like Araujo and Torres deserved and hoped for: one where none of us have to fear getting killed simply for being who we are, and openly expressing our gender identity in all public spaces, as every person should have the right to do.
As long as I remain here in the Bay Area, I know I will continue trying to do my part; for the last 10 years, I have been doing all I can to help nonprofits like the Transgender Law Center, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. More recently, I was also very fortunate to be appointed to the LGBT Advisory Committee of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission (a commission that is itself headed by a trans woman).
No matter where you are, you, too, can do a lot to help: consider offering some financial support to nonprofits like TLC, NCLR, or IGLHRC; you can also become involved in all present and future efforts to urge local lawmakers and public officials in places like Puebla, Mexico, to put an end to these barbaric affronts to human dignity.
You can find the Agnes Torres memorial Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/YoSoyAgnesTorres.
Tracy Garza is a member of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission's LGBT Advisory Committee.