Burial procession of Shawn Simon. Photo by Ray Lilly.

By Twinkle A. Paul and Tiffany Jade Munroe

With deep sadness and profound grief, we offer this reflection and call to action in solidarity with the family, community, and friends of Shawn Simon, 27, commonly called Coil Bottle. On July 11, 2024, a gunman fatally shot and killed Simon, a young and vibrant Afro-Guyanese transgender woman. While the shooter’s motivation is unknown, we are aware of the circumstances that perpetuate and promote these outcomes for transgender women in Guyana. 

Simon came from a supportive family, belonged to the Guyana Trans United community, and cared for her trans siblings. Simon hailed from New Amsterdam, Berbice, and lived with a trans sister in Grove East Bank Demerara. Just two weeks before her death, Simon explored leaving Guyana, saving her money to afford the dream of being free. She is remembered as a loving soul who loved to dance and embraced fashion as a form of self-expression, affirmation, and liberation. 

On July 24, 2024, Simon was laid to rest in a powerful display of love and outpouring of grief, pain, and hurt in her hometown of New Amsterdam, Berbice. She was surrounded by family, who welcomed and created space for hundreds of mourners, including Simon’s friends and community members, to pay their final respects, many of whom traveled from various parts of Guyana to celebrate, remember, and honor her life. A funeral service was held at Pastor Charles Church, followed by the burial, during which community members bravely carried Simon’s body to the burial ground. Members of the LGBTQ+ community wore red shirts displaying Simon’s photo and text echoing “Gone Too Soon.” Simon was only 27 years old.

Context in Which the Killing Occurred 

Simon’s murder did not occur in isolation; her death was a direct result of the systemic injustices many face in Guyana and throughout the English-speaking Caribbean. She was forced into sex work due to a lack of employment opportunities, job discrimination, and housing inequities. Like other former British colonies, Guyana inherited arctic colonial and draconic laws, religious bigotry, police brutality, and oppressive practices from its colonial rulers. For instance, the country’s Anti-Sodomy law is deeply rooted in slavery and indentureship; it breathes selective religious morality, cultivates power and control practices, and encourages police brutality. As a result, homophobia, transphobia, exclusion, division, and violence towards LGBTQ+ individuals are legitimized with disproportionate impacts on transgender people. Transgender Guyanese are effectively marginalized and economically disenfranchised out of education, housing, employment, and protection, which leads to precarious outcomes for their physical safety, emotional health, and sustainability. Simon and other fallen transgender women did survival sex work out of necessity; they suffered hardships and were brutally killed in the streets of Guyana. Their lives mattered!! They are Guyanese citizens and deserve justice.

Leaders Complacency 

Silence amounts to violence and complacency. Notably, religious principles are illuminated as the guardrails on the issue of human rights for the LGBTQ+ community. Still, on the senseless killing of human beings, these very leaders neglect their religious beliefs of “Thou shall not Kill” and “Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself.” On the other hand, the Guyana government and the opposition are all complicit and silent, and their inaction upholds these injustices- normalizing violence and invalidating LGBTQ+ lives. Simon is not the first instance of murder. In 2013, Wesly Holder was tortured, and her lifeless body was dumped in a dark alley. To date, no one has been held accountable, and her death remains an unsolved mystery. In 2014, Tyra and Jada were murdered with the assistance of workers who were employees of Mekdeci Machinery & Construction Inc. (MMC), a privately owned security company. In 2015, again another Trans sibling, Noel Nephi, was brutally gunned down, execution style similar to Simon. Five gruesome murders in the span of 12 years, and to date, the government of Guyana, the opposition, and the religious morals are yet to condemn the senseless, wrongful, and brutal killings of these human beings. Our trans siblings are not disposable. They have loved ones who continue to mourn their lives, uplift their memories and legacies, and fight for accountability and justice.

Call to Action 

When leaders and those entrusted to care for “One Guyana” remain silent on the issue of murder and human rights violations, it encourages the perpetuation of classism, racism, gender inequality, and violence under a false narrative about unity. But on the other hand, we, the people who made it out, who our country has abandoned, must refuse to remain silent, stand resolute, and fight for those whose lives continue to endure brutality and mistreatment, trapped in systemic oppression, discrimination, and racialized violence where injustice prevails. How many more must run away, be systematically ignored, maligned, die, and be beaten? We will use every tool at our disposal to dismantle the status quo of harm and reverse the course of injustices towards LGBTQ+ Guyanese. This fight is not new, and the burden has always fallen on the shoulders of our community to keep us safe and speak truth to power. But, it is unequivocally the responsibility of the Guyanese government to abolish inherited laws that continue to claim LGBTQ+ futures. How many more families must be separated from their children and siblings?

We call upon our community leaders, allies, and every LGBTQ+ Guyanese who had no other option but to migrate due to continued injustice to stand up and fight back as we shout NO MORE. Join us on Monday, September 2, at the Annual West Indian Labor Day Parade as we take our advocacy to the streets of NYC to demand justice for Shawn Simon.

In light of all that we highlighted, we respectfully call on the Government of Guyana, Law Enforcement, and the newly formed Constitutional Reform Commission to act immediately. We demand a Guyana free of hate and violence, and it starts with:

1. Prosecuting Simon’s murderers, Shaggy Mohamed and Akeem Gorgan Fraser, to the full extent of the law
2. Including explicit language that protects LGBTQ+ survivors of domestic, gender, and intimate partner violence in Guyana’s Family Violence Bill No. 11 of 2024
3. Repealing Sections 352 and 353 of Guyana’s colonial-era Criminal Law Act of 1893 in relation to consenting adults
4. Enforcing the right to work as guaranteed under Article 149A of the Constitution
5. Abiding by the Equality of Persons mandate under Article 149D (1), (2), & (3) of the Constitution
6. Amending the Guyana’s Police Act to strengthen police accountability for law enforcement willful negligence and thoroughly investigate allegations of police misconduct, including bias-based policing
7. Actualizing the Right to Housing under Article 26 of the Constitution
8. Creating greater access to education without discrimination and implementing disciplinary protocols for educators and administrators
9. Amending Article 149 (2) of the Constitution to include protections against discrimination based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity 
10.  Intentionally work with trans-led organizations, such as Guyana Trans United and Proud to Be Trans, in responding to and ending violence against trans and non-binary Guyanese 

About the Authors

We write this statement as two Guyanese transgender immigrants in New York City who fled the shores of Guyana for safety and survival. 

My name is Twinkle A. Paul, a recent John Jay College of Criminal Justice graduate who migrated to New York City in 2018 after fighting against injustice in Guyana. I started my activism at 15 years old, and all I continue to see is the death and destruction of my community- lost to murder, poor health outcomes, police brutality, and suicide. I was a sex worker just like Simon and was privileged to escape physical and emotional violence in Guyana. My work remains grounded in protecting my trans and sex worker siblings. I will not rest until trans Guyanese are respected and protected. 

My name is Tiffany Jade Munroe. I am a Guyanese trans woman who migrated to New York City in 2019 after fleeing years of violence and family abandonment. I started my activism in 2020 after attending the Brooklyn Liberation March, a rally to highlight the constant attacks and violence against the Black & Brown Transgender Community. In 2021, I became the Trans Justice Coordinator for the Caribbean Equality Project, a grassroots NYC-based immigrant rights organization that empowers, advocates for, and represents Afro and Indo-Caribbean LGBTQ+ people in New York City. Today, I build on the legacies of those who came before me, fighting for trans justice, trans-focused legislative advocacy, safety, and equity for Caribbean LGBTQ+ people in the diaspora. 

  Guyana, killing, transgender community