Virtual Event
Queer, transgender and gender non-binary migrants make up a significant but often misunderstood segment of Central Americans fleeing from violence and extreme poverty to the US. Since 2017, with the near-shuttering of asylum in the US, many such migrants now have resettled temporarily in Northern Mexico—where they face even further violence. This talk explores the emerging role of social media and smartphone technology as a venue for both specific forms of digital violence and shifting forms of political organizing for protection and safety that circumscribe the forced displacement of queer, transgender and non-binary migrants from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Based on asylum testimonies and ethnography with Honduran transwomen in Baja California, Mexico, queer and transgender migrants’ digital lives provide insight into the offline risks of gendered, sexual-based violence online as well as the possibilities of transnational solidarity in the context of militarized shifting border regimes in the Americas. Co-Presented with Columbia University’s Department of Anthropology.
