Alexa: LGBTQ Hate Crime Sparks a Movement in Puerto Rico

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Street View of Waves Ahead Resource Center Photo: Olivia Weiss

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Alexa was homeless. After she was kicked out, she spent her time making her way around the island looking for a place to live. She became a familiar face to many throughout her travels and was known on a first-name basis. She never found a secure place to stay. On her 29th birthday, she was murdered.

On Feb 24th. 2020, Alexa stopped to use the bathroom in a McDonald’s in Toa Baja. She had always carried around a handheld mirror for safety purposes and made the habit to use it to check her surroundings. When people saw her doing this, they accused her of being a peeping tom and filed a complaint with the police. The report went viral, and later that same day she was shot and killed, according to police and social media posts from that day.

A little over two years later, Waves Ahead, an LGBTQ resource center in San Juan, is still working to keep her memory alive. The center has posters on the walls that spread awareness of the hate crime and Executive Director Wilfred Labiosa eagerly shares her story with those who stop in.

“We have designed a memorial for Alexa, and all the other transgender brothers and sisters who have been murdered,” said Labiosa. “We are working to put it in the same spot that she was killed. We are working to get the permits for it.”

Labiosa also shared a lot about the difficulties transgender people specifically experience in Puerto Rico. In the recent months of 2022, two leading transgender focussed organizations were shut down for good. The Municipality of San Juan had a clinic geared toward providing transgender people the hormones they but it closed down, alongside the clinic that was available to those living with HIV.

Poster for Alexa in Waves Ahead Photo: Olivia Weiss

Waves Ahead are able to provide mental care but are not yet equipped to handle the medical side of things that the other clinics deal with.

“We don’t have services in Puerto Rico,” said Labiosa. “We aren’t enough for all the LGBT people that live here. We are the third clinic that provides support but we don’t provide medical support, we provide mainly mental health support for the transgender community. We are looking into developing a medical clinic on the 2nd floor here.”

The Human Rights Campaign reported that at least 44 transgender or gender non-conforming people were fatally shot or killed by other violent means in 2020, the year that Alexa was killed. It was also reported that six of those deaths happened in Puerto Rico. In 2022, there have already been 12 members of those communities killed by violent acts. These hate crimes have disproportionately impacted the community of black transgender women, of which Alexa was a part.

Alexa – Neulisa Luciano Ruiz Photo from Twitter

Alexa’s story is widely known in Puerto Rico. In fact, there are billboards along the highway in search of tips and information about those who committed the crime.

In 2021, three men were arrested with hate crime charges for the assault that happened to her prior to her being killed. It is not clear whether they killed her, or if they know the person they did.

The men took videos of themselves taunting and shouting homophobic slurs at her while allegedly shooting paintballs at her. The men could be heard misgendering Alexa and threatening her in the video, according to other news sources.

In Puerto Rico, the status of comfort for members of the LGBTQ community is relatively the same as those in the states, according to Labiosa. People in rural areas on the island can be skeptical of gay people, but in urban areas like San Juan, it is widely accepted.

There have even been gay clubs in San Juan around since the 60s. Despite that, there are still many things that make it hard for the community to thrive; conversion therapy is still legal on the island.

“There is a project that we co-wrote, the PS 184 which is a local law, that states that no reparative therapy can be used in an area that accepts federal or local government funding,” said Labiosa. “Conversion therapy is still being used today, not as much with youth, but with adults. Adults are being most impacted.”

Labiosa also shared that there is a church in Vieques that openly provides conversion therapy and that they are proud of it. The doors read, “We can help you, we provide Terapia de conversión”.

Wilfred Labiosa recounts the hardships of LGBTQ Puerto Ricans.

Apart from conversion therapy, hate crimes are still one of the biggest challenges gay and transgender people face in Puerto Rico. This has been an increasing problem before COVID, and it has only gained more momentum through and after the pandemic.

There have been a lot of homicides against people in the community, and from 2019 to 2021, there were 14 reported violent deaths, according to Labiosa. There has been a reluctance with police wanting to put that the deaths were the results of hate crimes.

“We advocate for the deaths to be categorized as hate crimes,” said Labiosa.

Alexa is only one of the victims that Waves Ahead uses as a symbolic figure to remind them of the importance of pushing for legislation in support of the community.

In 2010, 19-year-old Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado was brutally murdered, decapitated, and burned for being gay. He was a college student that actively advocated for HIV prevention and gay rights. The organization uses both examples to keep people involved in making Puerto Rico a better place for LGBTQ people.