This year marks a new beginning for Puerto Rico's LGBTQ community following the deadliest year for transgender people in the U.S.
territory in 2020. LGBTQ Puerto Ricans are cautiously optimistic that the Caribbean Island is potentially turning a corner with two separate campaigns.
Puerto Rico's new governor, Pedro Pierluisi, declared a state of emergency at the beginning of the year and established a new task force focused on gender-based violence.
Then in the fall, Discover Puerto Rico announced its new LGBTQ tourism campaign, "Live Out," that places transgender and gender-variant travelers front and center. "We have an epidemic of anti-LGBTQ violence in Puerto Rico, which last year Puerto Rico was the epicenter of anti-trans violence,"