Summary: I'm a Chilean trans lesbian who's looking for refuge from persecution because my country's new president is a fascist, not unlike Trump. I need money to pay my immigration lawyer so that I can declare asylum and stay safely in Canada. I also need money to cover my basic expenses until I can find a job.

Long version coming!

My name’s Helena Real and I’m a 40-year-old Chilean trans lesbian woman. I came out publicly in 2021 after months of therapy and deep evaluation, as the situation of trans people in the world was just starting to worsen—my country included.

For context, in Chile homosexuality was illegal until 1999 and to this day we don’t have a universal law that recognizes non-binary identities. Even though in the past decade some advancements have been made (including the legalization of same-sex marriages in 2022 and the right to gender identity law in 2018 , which allowed me to legally change my name and gender in 2023), at the same time there has been a continuous increase in abuse and hate crimes towards lesbian and transgender women since 2002 . Since I transitioned publicly I haven’t been able to go out at night on my own without fearing for my safety and, even during daytime, I have to be extremely alert to people’s reaction to me, as I have been harassed by Chilean neo-nazis who have, as of late, become even more emboldened by the election of an extreme right-wing president.

Trans friends of mine have suffered worse. They have been mauled, harassed, their possessions stolen, unlawfully incarcerated, and otherwise their lives made a living hell. Those of us who are easily identifiable as trans—such as myself—are in even more danger, as people who don’t have any particular hate towards us still won’t intervene when we’re being attacked. We are also disproportionately targeted by the police and other law enforcement or, in other cases, they simply refuse to intervene when we are suffering harassment at the hands of people who hate us only for being ourselves.

In such a situation I find myself under constant stress, and my mental and physical health have suffered greatly in the past 6 months or so as a result. When meeting with other trans women there’s a shared sense of doom, as if the trans genocide currently happening in the United States was a foregone conclusion in our country, as politicians and other public figures from all sides of the political spectrum abandon trans people and leave the right-wingers to turn us into their scapegoats. We cannot expect any public institution to offer us help or fight for us, as the governments escalates their rhetoric, with the current president openly declaring that "a man has a penis and a woman has a vagina ", thus denying the existence of trans people. As the Human Rights Watch group puts it , “Chile faces important human rights challenges regarding migrants, refugees, women, children, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.” And those challenges have only been made worse in the past year or so.

My personal experience of this discrimination and rise in hate has been devastating. I was let go of a very good job position in April 2021, one in which I worked as HR Assistant, translator & consecutive interpreter, and was considered a crucial part of the Chilean team of a multinational company until I decided to transition. After I lost that position in 2021, I was never able to find a new job position in Chile, nor a part-time abroad that paid enough to cover my expenses. I went from being paid enough to rent an apartment all on my own to being offered only minimum wage positions that simply don’t pay enough. As a result, I decided to move back with my parents, a decision that I ultimately regret, as they haven’t accepted my transition to this day, and made my life extremely difficult during those early transition years.

Desperate, in 2023 I tried to move to Argentina. Sadly, the political situation there got worse when Milei won the presidency, so I had to return to Chile for fear of being persecuted as both an immigrant and a queer woman in a foreign country where I had very little connections and/or job opportunities.

Although I’ve been able to find some online jobs and other freelance engagements, my economic situation in Chile was very bad and, what’s worse, it had no signs of improving now that the extreme right-wing politician Kast has been elected as president for the next 4 years, starting on March 11th, 2026. Kast has long been a member of the Political Network for Values, a group that opposes marriage equality and trans people's rights. Even before that, though, Congress had already left out of the Gender Identity Support Program (PAIG) from the 2026 budget bill, an act which, in essence, makes it so anybody who doesn’t have money can’t get access to crucial medication, such as Hormonal Replacement Therapy (HRT). It bears reminding that HRT is fundamental to our physical and mental well-being as trans people.

I did not make the decision to come to Canada lightly, but I consider my physical and mental well-being to be in imminent danger in Chile. If I were to return there, I could have my ID and passport revoked, as they can only exist under the right to gender identity law, something that Kast and his cohorts have already mentioned as a possible target , imitating Trump’s attack on trans people in the United States. Chile’s current constitution, wrote and passed during Pinochet’s dictatorship and tragically not replaced after the Social Unrest of 2019-2020, overwhelmingly favors the president’s initiative when it comes to passing laws. This, when combined with a Congress that’s largely favorable to Kast, creates a situation in which my rights could be stripped away swiftly and unexpectedly and, in such a situation, my possibilities to escape the country legally with my right name and gender being recognized become virtually zero.

Considering these recent developments and the long history of abuse and neglect of LGBTQ+ people since Pinochet’s dictatorship, I made the hard and painful decision to leave my country of origin and come to Canada to make a better future for myself. My skills as editor, translator, and foreign language teacher are highly valued here, and I arrive with the hope of becoming a productive and helpful member of society in a place where there are many opportunities for my professional and personal development.

To do so, however, I need to pay $15,000 CAD (around $11,000 USD) to my immigration lawyer, as well as $5,000 CAD (around $3,500 USD) to pay for travel and basic expenses while I look for a job

I would greatly appreciate any and all support.

Thanks a lot in advance!

Helena