A Trans Activist from Sierra Leone Finds Refuge on the Island of Lesvos
Roxy shares her inspirational story from LGBTQ+ Refugee Solidarity’s Safe House in Greece
A version of this piece originally appeared in GO Magazine
As a trans teen growing up in Freetown, the coastal capital of Sierra Leone in West Africa, Roxy kept her queerness to herself. Her mother – a pastor – was too preoccupied with her congregation to be concerned with such things. Her stepfather however, was fixated.
“This boy is gay, I am telling you that this boy is so gay,” he would proclaim to anyone who would listen.
Roxy says, “Somehow my stepfather was the first person who actually knew I was queer. I mean, I hadn’t actually done anything, but I was always so feminine.”
She’s a trans woman whose modelesque features and fierce femininity radiant through her new living room. Now 28 years old, she tells me she’s always known she was queer.
“I was born like this way,” she says proudly.
Since last October, Roxy has been staying in a safe house run by LGBTIQ+ Refugee Solidarity in Mytilene, the capital of the Greek island of Lesvos. She, like many others, is seeking asylum in Europe because the risk of persecution…
