A foundation that supports the trans community was ironically evicted from its own home, despite its efforts to defend the rights of trans individuals.

In March 2021, amid the quarantine caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, we were forced to leave our home. It was a house that provided shelter to various people, including transgender sex workers, gender non-conforming individuals, transgender women who were victims of armed conflict, those who had been incarcerated, homeless people, and activists who had fought for this place through their struggle for safety and well-being. This refuge stood as a bastion against police violence and transphobia, offering a safe and welcoming space. It's important to note that we, transgender people, face a higher risk of suicide compared to the rest of the population, emphasizing even more the significance of these refuges as crucial places of support and resistance.

Therefore, losing our home, which supports more than 600 transgender people by providing legal, psychological, and even healthcare access, creates a huge gap in the pursuit of equality and respect for our fundamental rights.

For many years, the Trans Community Network has been almost exclusively the only community advocating for the rights of the transgender population in Colombia. Their activism represents their diversity, that range from sex workers, abuse victims, displaced from violence, HIV positives, homelessness, just to name a few. Due to the discrimination they face in such a conservative society, they managed to self-finance the realization of a new home that accommodates and ensures their existence.

- Brief

To reclaim our space to continue working for the transgender community.

- Objectives

To have a physical space that shelters our community and continue to work for the rights of people with diverse gender identities.

Having among the highest death rates worldwide, due to stigmatization, discrimination and violence the Trans Community Network of Colombia has been a key player locally. They have almost single handedly advocated in favor of rights for the transgender population in the country. The house was the place that welcomed this population regardless of their occupations or origins, which in many cases had no other safeguard. Without this space, amidst a global health emergency, regrouping and gathering resources to establish a new home was a top priority to prevent further marginalization and vulnerability.

CASATRANS.CO is a website where people can donate and support our cause. It's also a way for us to speak up and stand for what we believe in. We created a virtual house and sold it bit by bit. People could explore different rooms, choose from over 250 illustrated pieces, and buy them to help us get a real home.

Each piece had a story, told in a fun and light-hearted way, just like our community. We wanted to celebrate them and avoid making people feel sorry for us, which often happens with stories like ours. Every room, like the "Hall of Memory," honored our sisters who were killed and everyone affected by violence because of their gender identity.

Even though we had already come out and had a well-established organization which brought together the entire transgender community, the context of the eviction put us in a very difficult situation where we needed to reclaim our home without any means to obtain resources. It was precisely out of nothing that the idea emerged to sell a house we didn't have to get the one we needed.

"We sell the house we don't have to get the one we need."

Raising funds for a social cause is a challenging task, but it's even more difficult for a community like ours, which faces constant rejection and discrimination.

That's why we decided to launch CASATRANS.CO by using the most powerful tool we have: art. Because ultimately, it doesn't matter if someone decides to "come out of the closet" if there's no house that welcomes, offer support or help when they might need it.

Our e-commerce featured 14 different rooms, where we symbolically sold each part of a house: bricks, tiles, doors, faucets, toilets, and more than 250 unique objects. These elements were designed by artists with diverse backgrounds, mostly from the LGBTIQ+ community.

We reopened CasaTrans using the most powerful resource: art. It's a place dedicated to protecting trans rights, where we were able to once again provide health, psychological, and cultural services to over 600 trans women, sex workers, webcam performers, community artists, leaders from social organizations, trans women living on the streets, and trans women in detention.

Additionally, the visibility generated by our initiative served as support for the efforts being made to present the Trans bill before the congress of the republic.

The Trans Community Network aims to ensure the full exercise of self-determination, equality in both formal and material aspects, and the elimination of all forms of injustice, exclusion, discrimination, and violence against trans people. In Colombia alone, according to figures from the Caribe Afirmativo Corporation, out of the 145 LGBTIQ+ homicide and femicide victims last year, 49 were individuals with trans life experiences. For this reason, the network aims to expand this initiative to more houses in Colombia and around the world, and has opened the website's code for use by other foundations.

Additionally, we hope that the visibility generated by this initiative will support the efforts being made for the presentation of the Trans bill before the congress of the republic.