Thina Rodrigues
Age 5729 Jun 2020
Fortaleza, Ceará (Brazil)
COVID-19
Thina was the president of the Association of Transvestites of Ceará (Atrac). She died in an intensive care unit 6 weeks after being hospitalised with COVID-19 symptoms.
The president of the Association of Transvestites of Ceará (Atrac) Thina Rodrigues died in Fortaleza, on the morning of this Monday (29), at the age of 57, a victim of Covid-19. According to a note of condolence from the Special Coordination for Sexual Diversity, Thina had a cardiac arrest and could not resist worsening the infection.
Born in Brejo Santo, a municipality in the interior of Ceará, Thina had her life trajectory marked by the fight against prejudices and discrimination against transsexuals and transvestites from Ceará. At 17 she had been expelled from home, and at 20 she was arrested “just for who she is”, as she reported in November 2019 in an interview with Diário do Nordeste.
It was in personal experiences and also in the community where Thina found strength and founded, two decades ago, with the activist Janaína Dutra, Atrac, who presided up to the present times. “We started to fight for the right to come and go and to exist for all of us. We became protagonists of our own stories. The new generation is living what we have built for them, but the prejudice will not end. Every mistreated girl at school, at the health clinic, hurts me. The fight must continue, "said Thina, last November.
In the same interview, on International Trans Memory Day (11/20), the activist revealed how she wanted to be remembered by new generations. "Just as a simple person, fighter and activist, who will be very happy when trans [people] are fully accepted".
In a press release, the Special Coordination for Sexual Diversity of the City of Fortaleza regretted the loss of the activist. “ Women, transvestites, black women, warriors, leave us with an immense longing and countless memories in the trenches of this war that is to fight daily for life”.
Thina's Facebook and LinkedIn profiles are https://www.facebook.com/thina.rodrigues.965 and https://www.linkedin.com/in/thina-rodrigues-24891562/?originalSubdomain=br.
https://www.opovo.com.br/jornal/especiais/2019/04/12/espaco-de-sonho--metamorfose-e-liberdade.html
https://ce.cut.org.br/noticias/nota-de-pesar-pelo-falecimento-de-thina-rodrigues-6710