In Jamaica, the place religion shapes moral order and the place violence in opposition to LGBTQ+ individuals is pervasive, dwelling brazenly as a transgender particular person can pose a lethal threat.
For Terry-Kay Walker, 38, that life-or-death second got here to a head one evening when she was coming house from a vogue present in New Kingston.
“Me and my greatest buddy have been strolling down the street, and a person stopped us,” she instructed CityNews.
Earlier than Walker may make sense of the state of affairs, she and her buddy took off working. Then got here the sound of gunshots.
“I heard a shot being fired, however I didn’t really feel it as a result of it occurred so quick,” she defined. “Then my buddy instructed me that I used to be bleeding. And that’s after I observed that I used to be shot within the leg.”
Walker claims she was focused that evening due to her gender identification and says she has confronted persistent violence and discrimination in her house nation that has pressured her to reside on the streets for extended intervals of time and carry out intercourse work.
After years of unstable and abusive dwelling conditions, she reached out to an advocacy group in Toronto known as Rainbow Railroad, which helps LGBTQ+ individuals around the globe who’re dealing with displacement, state-enabled persecution, and violence of their house nation. The group says it obtained a record-breaking variety of requests for assist final 12 months, fuelled by compounding world crises.
“The quantity of requests for assist that we’re receiving is regarding,” Devon Matthews, Chief Applications Officer at Rainbow Railroad, tells CityNews. “It’s a 51 per cent enhance from 2024 12 months over 12 months, and it’s the best within the group’s 20-year historical past.”
Based on a report released on June 20, which marks World Refugee Day, the group claims to have obtained greater than 20,000 requests for assist in 2025 from people in nations spanning from the USA to Uganda.
“We’re seeing flare-ups in anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment, like laws lately handed in Uganda, which permits for prison expenses for individuals who help LGBTQI individuals or advocate on their behalf,” Matthews explains. “However we generally overlook that LGBTQI individuals are all over the place in each disaster, it doesn’t matter what’s occurring on the earth.”
“Constant world stress for people who find themselves dwelling in nations the place there’s battle, disaster, environmental degradation or class wrestle is inflicting an inflection level,” they added.
For Walker, her final straw was in 2024 when she obtained a textual content message from an unknown entity with a disturbing video that confirmed a buddy and fellow transgender lady being brutally murdered.
“The particular person messaged me and stated, ‘I do know the place you reside and also you’re subsequent,’” she defined. “I used to be afraid and wanted to go wherever other than Jamaica, so I reached out to Rainbow Railroad to get some assist.”
When requested if she had contacted any authorities to report the state of affairs, Walker described a contemptuous relationship between native police and the nation’s LGBTQ+ group.
“Jamaica is a homophobic nation,” she defined. “Police reap the benefits of LGBTQ+ individuals. They won’t take our stories.”
As soon as in touch with the Rainbow Railroad, Walker despatched the group images of her accidents from numerous assaults that she’s endured through the years, in addition to different proof she collected. After that data was verified, the group labored shortly to assist her safe a brand new passport and flee Jamaica.
Initially, she was set to flee to Amsterdam in 2024 with a aircraft ticket bought by Rainbow Railroad. Nevertheless, when Walker arrived on the gate, she didn’t have a return ticket to Jamaica. This led crews to disclaim her passage, figuring out her a flight threat.
“It was embarrassing,” Walker defined. “For somebody to return and pull me out of line and say you can’t board after going via safety and handing in your baggage. It was extra embarrassing than heartbreaking.”
After a number of months of dwelling in limbo, Rainbow Railroad coordinated one other escape plan. This led Walker to efficiently board a flight to Bogotá, Colombia, the place she was in a position to file a refugee declare with the U.S. via its Precedence 1 (P-1) pathway for queer and transgender people who find themselves at-risk.
Her software was accepted in November 2024 throughout the last months of former U.S. President Joe Biden’s time period. Nevertheless, when present President Donald Trump assumed the Oval Workplace for his second time period, one among his first directives was to remove the particular program for LGBTQ+ refugees.
“Sadly, as soon as Trump got here in, that program was squashed,” Matthews stated. “It collapsed in a single day.”
It wasn’t till her third try that Walker efficiently escaped and got here to Canada beneath the nation’s Authorities-Assisted Refugees program (GAR). In contrast to different resettlement packages, the place people should apply straight, the GAR program requires refugees to be referred by the United Nations Refugee Company or one other referral group, corresponding to Rainbow Railroad.
This system, launched in 2023, has allowed Rainbow Railroad to refer 250 individuals for resettlement in Canada per 12 months. However Matthews says the Canadian authorities dramatically lowered immigration ranges the next 12 months beneath former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which has negatively impacted the LGBTQ+ refugees.
“The Canadian authorities really eliminated a few of our essential funding that we require so as to function this program,” Matthews stated. “Along with that discount in funding, we’ve additionally been seeing the sector at massive be defunded extensively.”
Matthews says accomplice organizations that provide newcomer and resettlement providers, like The 519 group centre in Toronto, have additionally suffered funding cuts.
Then, in March 2026, the Canadian government passed Bill C-12, which overhauls how the nation manages asylum claims and border and immigration processing. Critics like Matthews take difficulty with the brand new legislation, together with one stipulation which requires refugee claims to be made inside a 12 months of the claimant’s first arrival in Canada.
“That is clearly very regarding,” he stated, including that it may put individuals vulnerable to being despatched again to nations the place they face persecution.
In the meantime, Walker formally arrived in Toronto in December 2025 and has been working to begin a brand new life, free to be herself with out worrying about her security.
“When the immigration officer instructed me I used to be accepted, I used to be over the moon, however I used to be nonetheless a bit of skeptical as a result of I used to be beforehand accepted to go to the U.S. after which it didn’t occur,” Walker stated.
“Being an individual from the streets, you undergo a lot; nothing can break you,” she stated. “I used to be in a spot the place I used to be hiding who I used to be, working from police, working from the broader inhabitants.
“I dreamed about going to a spot that was higher for me. The place I can go to work and get any job I really feel like and present up as I’m, dressed as a feminine.”
Walker is gearing as much as brazenly rejoice her first-ever Delight in Toronto on the finish of June and can march within the parade with a cohort of attendees from The 519 group centre.
“I’m overly excited and counting down the times!” she exclaimed.
It’s set to be a momentous celebration after a protracted and turbulent journey to security, however for the tens of hundreds of people who find themselves nonetheless reaching out to Rainbow Railroad, assist can’t come quickly sufficient.
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