UPDATE:
This is with great sadness that I share the news that Effie succumbed to cancer.
While the original cancer was receding, giving all of us great hopes for a complete remission, insidious cardiac metastases rapidly exhausted Effie's body.
Effie left this world on February 16 at 2:05 AM with TeeTee next to her.
We want to secure for TeeTee the means to organize a decent funeral in Paris.
Even with any of the low budget options at our disposal we must come up with $5,000.
Please donate one more time, in Effie's memory and for TeeTee's wish to have a nice ceremony celebrating the person he was very much in love with, the beauty and strength of their love and Effie leaving us and joining other angel trans sisters and brothers.
With my gratitude and love,
Iman
INITIAL POST:
What is the future for a young TRANS COUPLE in JAMAICA? JAIL or DEATH!!
Effie 35 and TeeTee 22 , beautiful Trans-Non Binary couple, tried to escape from transphobic Jamaica twice, because living in Jamaica means imprisonment for a couple like them, if not death by the “Jungle Justice”, whenever mobs kill Queer people and the police and the government turn a blind eye.
The first time they fled Jamaica, Effie and TeeTee were hoping they will go to the US but were rejected and sent back to Jamaica.
This time they managed to go to another country which is not very safe though, found a shelter for refugees, where they contacted me and my husband.
They found out about us because we saved their Jamaican sister Danielle who is now in France in the process of getting her asylum.
You can check Danielle’s GoFundMe: “Help Trans Danielle Get Asylum And Afford Living”
Me and my husband committed to help Effie and TeeTee and we will do everything we can to get them a safe home in one of the European Community countries. The EEC has the best protections in the world for Asylum Seekers and the most advanced ones for Transgender people.
My name is Iman Le Caire. I am myself an Asylee, originally from Egypt, living in New York. For the past year I have been devoting most of my time, as a volunteer, to saving the lives of transgender women and men, by helping them flee their home countries, where they are persecuted and finding trans friendly countries willing to grant them asylum.
I am starting this GoFundMe for Effie and TeeTee because this beautiful loving Trans-Non Binary couple, our new children, deserves to live in a country which respects and values who they are.
Help me raise the money they need to buy plane ticket, pay for visa fees, lawyer fees,... and start their life in Europe.
Watch their video message and read TeeTee’s message:
My name is TeeTee, born Terrence Phang, a 22 year old non-binary from Kingston Jamaica and my partner Effie born Khymarley Richardson, a 35 year old trans woman from St. Ann Jamaica. Growing up we faced many struggles with our sexuality and finding it hard to fit into the societal norms of Jamaican culture being queer...
We had no family support coming out..myself at the age of 19 when my story was outed to my family in the volatile community of trench town where my uncle a don I wish not to speak his name threw me out of my family home when they found out about my sexuality my parents ashamed of me washed their hands clean and I had to take to the streets of Kingston for refuge where I had to turn to prostitution in order to survive during this time being taken advantage of and being forced into having unprotected sex with men for money I later was rescued by a shelter in st Ann where I met Effie and he too faced the same struggles and was involved in prostitution for years he had also faced harm and had scars from men who attacked him due to his sexuality. We found out about asylum and thought of what it would feel like to be in a safe and comfortable space where we did not have to hide in fear of who we really were ...we fought to maintain an image that was not ours and compromise our safety taking on a hustling to sell produce in st Ann's bay market where we could save up together and flee to a transit country which we are now in and it's as if we are in the same situation and fight to find a safe country in which we can feel safe because yet again our lives and safety are compromised in the space we are in ...we have now been in contact with our new found family Jean-Manuel and his wife Iman Le Caire which our sister Danielle a trans woman from Jamaica now living in France, they have taken us as their children and are standing with us in the fight to be free and find Solidarity in a safe country free from discrimination and hurt we've been facing.
Organizer and beneficiary
Jean-Manuel Pourquet
Beneficiary