Arely Westley didn't imagine twelve years ago that she'd be where she is today.
The LGBTQ+ and immigrant rights activist is this year's recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, receiving recognition for her tireless efforts with numerous organizations in New Orleans that work to uplift queer youth, stop abuses in ICE detention facilities, and expand access to immigrant support services.
Westley, a transgender woman, moved to Louisiana from Honduras at a young age. She was charged with low-level drug and illegal re-entry charges in her youth, fueling her fight to end the criminalization of LGBTQ+ minors. She is now the Campaign Director at BreakOUT!, an organization that seeks to empower Black and Latinx transgender and gender nonconforming youth through leadership development programs.
"If I think back to 2012 or 2013, when I was first beginning to identify as a trans woman, and all the things that I've had to overcome in order to get here, it's hard to believe that I would be recognized with this award," Westley told The Advocate. "Especially being a trans woman of color, being an undocumented Latina woman, and all the challenges that that brings that I've had to confront being in the United States."
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"It's just really amazing to consider receiving this award and this recognition after everything, because I'm the only one that really knows everything that I had to go through in order to reach this moment," she said.
Westley also works with a New Orleans-based organization called Home is Here NOLA, which provides housing, legal aid, and community support to newly arrived immigrants. In addition, she serves as a board member for the Southeast Immigrant Rights Network and Asheboro Latinxs Services.
Westley said that her being honored with the award comes at a "really crucial moment, especially in light of all the anti-trans bills and the anti-migrant bills that are being put forth, and the lack of access that we have to resources in the south."
More than 550 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced across the U.S. in 2023, and 80 were passed into law. Less than four months into 2024, 479 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced, many of which restrict transgender health care for adults and completely prohibit it for minors, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
These anti-transgender bills particularly impact immigrants, Westley said, many of whom already struggle to access key resources like health care. For those who are detained, accessing such care becomes virtually impossible.
"Not just in the detention center, but even outside of it, there are so many anti-trans and anti-queer bills that are cutting off access to the hormones that we need, to the right to use the bathroom that we should be able to," she explained. "We don't have access to the resources we need."
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Westley was detained in 2022 at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center (formally known as the LaSalle Immigration Detention Facility) in Jena, La. She experienced numerous human rights abuses, she said, including being held in solitary confinement solely for being a transgender woman.
Westley said that solitary confinement "keeps us totally isolated and gives us little contact and little access to the treatment or the medicines that we need or to human contact, and not to mention the devastating psychological and emotional impact that that has on a human being to be isolated in solitary confinement like that."
Since her release, Westley has led multiple shutdown campaigns calling for the closure of ICE detention facilities that have a documented history of abuse. Abolition of these facilities is key, she said, as reform has not created the change necessary to prevent human rights violations.
"This is a topic that's been debated for years, not just in the immigration detention center context, but in prisons in general," Westley said. "They're always talking about reform and never accomplishing it. There's always something that stands in the way of it. And in the meantime, people are dying in jails because of lack of access to healthcare, to the resources that they need."
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"I'm a live example of this because I have had the chance to organize not just on the inside of detention centers, but also on the outside," she continued. "And I've met with the, the leaders of these jails and these detention centers, and I've seen them lie to my face saying, 'Oh, these types of things don't happen inside.' But I know that's not true."
For those who want to get involved, Westley said it is imperative to "invest in trans leadership of color." This could look like "donating to organizations that are fighting for resources and fighting against criminalization, or it could look like when it's time to vote, raising a voice alongside of us and fighting against anti-trans policies."
Also for those who are in the position to, "something they can do is open the door for a trans person in need of work and hire them to work," Westley added. "Because a dignified work can give someone access to healthcare, to education, to things that are really essential for the well being of a human being."
Courtesy Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
While Westley said that she's "honored" to receive the RFK Human Rights Award, she emphasized that it "not only belongs to me, but to all my trans sisters who in one way or another are in the struggle and resistance to live." Furthermore, it "is a moment for me to bring attention to the communities that I represent here in the south."
"This is a really crucial moment because it really brings a lot of attention to not only the trans community, but also to the Latino and the migrant community not just in the south, but throughout the country," she said.
