Indianara during a protest asking for the ousting of current Brazilian president, Michel Temer | Photo: Indianara Siqueira/Facebook/Used with permission For a few years now, Brazil has shamefully led the world in the number of murders of transgender people. According to a study by Transgender Europe, four times more transgender people are killed in Brazil than in the second country on the list (Mexico) and almost eight times more than in the third (United States). An independent study, organized annually by a gay rights group in Bahia, counted that at least 318 members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community were killed in Brazil in 2015, of which 37% — or about 117 people — were transgender. The life expectancy of a transgender person living in Brazil in the 21st century is 30 years. To compare, the life expectancy of Brazilians in general is currently 75. Brazil doesn't have any laws that protect LGBT people from discrimination. Neither sexual orientation nor gender identity are included in the definition of a hate crime, and you'll find no option to check either on a police report, making it difficult for activists and NGOs to gather data. Life is especially hard for transgender people who earn a living as sex workers. Amid such a problematic reality, a 45-year-old transgender woman has offered the world a glimpse of what life is like for trans people in Brazil. Indianara Siqueira ran on the left-wing party PSOL ticket in Rio de Janeiro's municipal elections on October 2. She received 6,166 votes and won an alternate seat (one of six designated replacements in case the voters’ first choices pass away or must abandon their post for any reason) in the local legislature. To celebrate, as well as to invite her voters to her inauguration ceremony in January, Indianara decided to share some of her life story on her Facebook page. So far, her post was liked by more than 3,100 people and shared more than 700 times. Indianara was born in a medium-sized city, Paranaguá, in the southern state of Paraná during Brazil's military dictatorship (1964-1985). She started to take hormones at age 12. At 16, she left her grandmother’s home. Before turning 20, she had already been raped — committed by police officers in the small boarding house in São Paulo where she was living. Indianara detailed the brutal conditions she and others like her were made to endure: Fui pra Santos,afinal como diz a canção:La miseré est plus légere au soleil (A miséria é mais leve no sol). Lá dormindo na rua conheci as Travestis putas que me acolheram e me deram um poste onde trabalhar na esquina.De masseira e pizzaiola,me tornei puta. Quase todos os dias éramos levadas pelo Francês ( Polícia Civil) entre outres,ou Abreu ( PM) entre outros PMs pra delegacia.Apanhavamos por existir.Eramos jogadas no camburão e em viaturas como lixo que não pode nem ser reciclado.Eramos colocadas no muro do coliseu de Santos e tínhamos amoníaco espirrado na cara.Aquilo queimava olho ,mucosa da boca.So que quando eles iam puxar o amoníaco,puxavam também o revólver e se vc corresse eles atiravam.Vc suportava o amoníaco te queimar enquanto eles riam.As vezes faziam vc achar que iam fuzilar todas..Vc aprende o dia do plantão dos teus algozes,mas não pra fugir deles e sim se preparar psicologicamente pra ser torturada por eles.Voce tinha que sobreviver.Mas vc saia pronta pra morrer. I moved to Santos, after all, as the song says: La miseré est plus légere au soleil (Misery is lighter under the sun). There, while sleeping in the streets, Imet transvestites working as prostitutes who sheltered me and gave me a lamp post on a street corner where I could work. From a baker and pizza maker, I became a whore. Almost everyday, we were taken by the “Frenchman” (an investigative officer), among others, by Abreu (a military policeman), among other military policemen, to the police station. We were beaten up because we existed. We were thrown into the police cars and vans as if we were garbage that couldn’t be recycled. We were lined up against the wall of the Santos’ Coliseum Theater and we had ammonia splashed all over our faces. It burned the eyes, the inside of the mouth. The thing is, when they went to pull out the ammonia, they also pulled out their guns, and if you ran, they'd shoot. You had to endure the ammonia burning you while they laughed. Sometimes, they would make you believe they were going to shoot us all. You learn your executioners’ shifts, but not to run away from them, you learn to prepare yourself psychologically to be tortured by them. You have to survive. But you leave home ready to die. Indianara identifies as both a transgender woman and a transvestite.