JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A transgender woman who spent nearly eight months in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody won asylum in the U.S.
last August because of the persecution she suffered in her native Cuba. Dayana Mena López on July 25 noted to the Washington Blade during an interview at a restaurant in Jacksonville, Fla., where she now lives that she suffered persecution in her homeland because of her gender identity and her opposition to the Cuban government.
Mena, who is of African descent, is from the town of Placetas in Cuba’s Villa Clara province. She told the Blade she came out as trans when she lived in Cienfuegos, a city in Central Cuba.