Registration is now open for the second cycle of our Leadership Development Program, September 2020 to February 2021! Register Here.
Let’s say you’re working PR for a company building a luxury resort on top of a hill. The construction makes heavy rocks fall on top of the community living at the bottom of the hill. Activists have started to mobilize, calling for the injustice to stop. You need to offer reforms that will placate the pesky activists and let the construction go on as planned. What do you do?
This thought-provoking activity was one of many at the Leadership Development Program of the Queer Detainee Empowerment Project (QDEP). The program was designed exclusively for transgender women, cis-gender queer women, and gender non-conforming immigrants, and ran from October 2019 to March 2020. We were led by QDEP’s Co-Director and Coordinator of Community Organizing, Uchechukwu (Uche) Onwa and other incredible queer, abolitionist facilitators. In the process, we gained the knowledge and confidence necessary to become leaders in the immigrant-rights movement.
“It was welcoming because everyone was willing to share, even when the subject matter was hard,” Dzana Ashworth, a queer Filipina-American Jewish adoptee, said. During our monthly sessions, we centered the voices of people of color, trans women, and HIV+ immigrants as we discussed our identities and how we could become agents of change. As a white trans woman and immigrant from Europe, I was given the space to be heard about issues that affected me, while taking a step back to learn about experiences different from my own.
We were not passively absorbing information, but actively involved in thinking through social issues. The role-play mentioned above was just one of many. We also role-played a meeting between a U.S. investor, Latin American factory owner, and Latin American activist. In another exercise, we read a scenario about a queer undocumented immigrant and analyzed what systems of oppression were preventing them from flourishing. And when we were sleepy after lunch, a group member led a silly exercise that brought us back together and re-energized the group.
QDEP, which hosted the program, is based in New York City and empowers queer people living in and outside of immigration detention. QDEP strives to make the program accessible and inclusive. Participants received free breakfast, lunch, and MetroCards, as well as a certificate of completion to help us progress in the professional world. Simultaneous Spanish-English interpretation made sure that English-language perspectives did not dominate the discussion.
Aneiry S. Zapata, who is a Honduran Garífuna transgender woman and feminist, said that our lessons on Blackness and white supremacy helped her grow the most. “You should stay firm to who you are,” she said, even when white supremacy tries to convince you that your culture is inferior.
Dzana said that the program gave her the vocabulary to become involved in QDEP’s campaign to abolish ICE and prisons. “You were allowed to use your imagination,” Dzana said. “You were allowed to look to the future.” Dzana loves science fiction, and she said that the program encouraged her to think outside of the box to imagine a world where community care replaces prisons.
Dzana and I started working closely with Uche, the facilitator, in QDEP’s organizing efforts. The Leadership Development Program helped us build the relationships that carry us through the work, from coalition calls with other immigration groups to hitting the streets for direct action. In this way, I have learned to grow my voice and take up space. When Aneiry and I testified at City Hall about the discrimination transgender people face, I felt like I had gained new comrades in the fight for transgender immigrants.
Aneiry has been a QDEP member and advocate for a year. For her, the Leadership Development Program helped her better grasp the political landscape in the United States. This gave her the confidence to join her first protest in the United States, and to co-organize her own protest with the Garifuna LGBTQ community in solidarity with Black Lives Matter. “It helped me grow,” she said. “And it was the biggest reason for me to say, ‘Yes—I will go out there.'”
Register for the second cycle of our Leadership Development Program!
Sonia Anastasia Steinmann is a trans woman from Greece and Germany living in Jersey City.
