Your Mother’s Comfort

“We transgender are the revolution!” Indianara Siqueira, trans activist and politician, admonishes her political party for ousting her days before the 2018 Brazilian national elections. In the same election cycle extreme-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro is a forerunner for President of the Republic. Indianara is the ‘mother’ at the head of a homeless shelter and community center for trans sex workers called Casa Nem in Rio de Janeiro. Casa Nem is a squat, and facing the threat of eviction, Indianara occupies a colonial palace nearby to bargain with the city to save the house.