Anjali Rimi on Supporting Transgender Immigrants
Seeking justice and affirmation as San Francisco proclaims Transgender Immigrants Day.
Anjali Rimi speaks on the steps of San Francisco City Hall on Transgender Immigrants Day, November 18, 2025. Photo by Pax Ahimsa Gethen, CC BY-SA 4.0. (More photos here)
by Pax Ahimsa Gethen
During this time of heightened anxiety over violent ICE raids on our communities, transgender immigrants can feel especially vulnerable. In the San Francisco Bay Area, one of the organizations coming to the aid of this population is Parivar Bay Area, a nonprofit offering advocacy, leadership development, and economic support, with a focus on immigrants and asylees from India and South Asia. Founded in 2018, Parivar recently celebrated the opening of its first brick-and-mortar space, and simultaneously announced a new legal aid program for trans immigrants.
The co-founder and president of Parivar is Anjali Rimi (she/they), a Kinnar (Hijra) transgender immigrant from Hyderabad, India. Rimi has been admirable in her endeavors over the years, from her tireless relief work during the COVID pandemic, to her speaking on Transgender Immigrants Day this November. She has received many honors along the way, including recognition in Congress and the White House in 2023, honors in the California state legislature, and a National Transgender Award in India.
Anjali Rimi, flanked by San Francisco city officials and supporters, holds a signed proclamation of Transgender Immigrants Day on November 18, 2025. Photo by Pax Ahimsa Gethen, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Assigned Media reached out to Rimi to learn more about her work and lived experience, beginning with her cultural and gender identities, which may be unfamiliar to many outside of Southeast Asia.
“Being an Indian Kinnar, part of the Hijrah samudaya, and a Global South immigrant holds deep cultural, spiritual, and collective meaning for me,” she said. “In the Western world, these identities are often misunderstood or reduced to one-dimensional labels about gender or nationality. But Hijrah/Kinnar culture is not simply an identity, it is a lineage, a system of chosen family, spirituality, and communal responsibility that predates colonial binaries. Hijrah kinship is a sacred system of mentorship, responsibility, and care that protects those who have been abandoned by society, tied into region, language, customs, traditions, religion and family ties.”
Rimi spoke of harmful stereotypes she faces due to xenophobia and ignorance about her culture. “In trans communities, I’m told I ‘dress culturally too often.’ In immigrant spaces, I’m treated as if I am ‘costumed’ if I wear traditional clothing. In South Asian spaces, people assume I cannot speak English or that my only possibility is begging or survival sex work.”
“I’m still searching for a place where all of these identities are welcomed without question,” she said, “and part of my work is to create that space for others like me.”
While immigrants from South Asia like Rimi are the primary focus of Parivar, the organization is open to trans immigrants and asylees from all regions. TILARI (Transgender and Immigrant Legal Access and Relief Initiative), their new legal aid initiative in partnership with Okan Law Immigration Group, is already experiencing high demand. “Over the next two years, the organization plans to build a broad legal-access network beginning with immigration services and later expanding to employment and civic legal support,” Rimi explained. The program will offer reduced-rate legal services, direct stipends, and personalized legal navigation.
Regarding institutional backing, Rimi expressed gratitude for support from the city of San Francisco. “While so much of the country is turning its back on transgender people and immigrants, San Francisco opened its arms. This city didn’t just give me shelter; it gave me a path from unhoused to housed, from stateless to citizen, from being erased to becoming a community leader.”
“San Francisco proves that transgender immigrants can belong, thrive, and be celebrated,” she continued. “My hope is that we continue turning that vision into everyday reality, so the sanctuary I found here becomes the sanctuary every trans immigrant can rely on.”
November 18 marked the 4th annual mayoral proclamation of Transgender Immigrants Day in San Francisco, and for the first time the mayor came to deliver it in person. Following Rimi’s opening remarks, Mayor Daniel Lurie greeted those assembled. “With anti-trans and anti-immigrant policies being enacted at all levels of government, it’s clear that people’s lives and rights are in jeopardy. Protecting our community is not up for discussion. As mayor of San Francisco, I am here today to reaffirm that we – and that I – stand with all of you.”
Trans community members speaking at the event included Sofia S. Ríos Dorantes, deputy director of El/La Para Translatinas. “I am a transgender, indigenous, and immigrant woman, and I have been waiting for almost nine years for a resolution to my asylum case here in San Francisco. My story is not unique, and precisely for that reason, it must be heard … but we are not just the sum of our obstacles. We are continually our roots, the strength of our communities.”
Another featured speaker was Jessy Ruiz, member of the city’s Immigrants Rights Commission. “For me, this day represents much more than a symbolic act. It represents the voice, the struggles, and the hope that so many people, like me, have across the borders in search of safety, dignity, and opportunity to live authentically.”
Speaking to Assigned Media on the significance of the occasion, Rimi said: “Transgender Immigrants Day exists because despite living in a sanctuary city, many trans immigrants remain unseen, vulnerable, and unprotected. The annual proclamation is affirming — one day where our existence is acknowledged by the city we call home … Seeing the Mayor here in person, standing with us, not delegating, not offering distant words, shows that San Francisco still leads with empathy, visibility, and courage when so many places are moving in the opposite direction.”
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie hands a signed proclamation of Transgender Immigrants Day to Anjali Rimi on November 18, 2025. Photo by Pax Ahimsa Gethen, CC BY-SA 4.0.
At the same time, Rimi acknowledged that there is more the city can do to help. “To truly protect transgender immigrants, we need sustained funding for trans-specific programs, stronger protections from detention and surveillance, mandatory trans competency training in immigrant-serving organizations, and genuine partnership with community-led groups like Parivar Bay Area.”
Asked her thoughts on the risks and rewards of being openly trans in today’s society, particularly for trans women of color, Rimi responded: “For trans women of color, especially immigrants, being openly trans is both deeply risky and deeply necessary … The political environment has become harsher, and trans women of color are targeted socially, legally, and economically.”
“Within the trans movement, privilege creates its own divides, those adjacent to whiteness or certain forms of capital often set narratives that exclude or overshadow trans women of color, especially immigrants,” she continued. “Yet there is power in choosing visibility. It allows us to fight for our communities, to model survival and joy, and to build systems where trans immigrants do not have to struggle alone. The risk is real, but the reward is collective liberation.”
With all the recognition she has received for her work, Rimi is most grateful for the survival of herself, her family, and her community. “My greatest achievement is simply being alive, surviving long enough to build community, to create a chosen family, and to have both my biological mother Gouri Devi and my spiritual mother, Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, beside me in my journey.”
“Being a transgender immigrant is courage beyond measure because it is the most authentic existence of our lives because we know nothing else different in our journeys,” Rimi concluded. ”We are not strangers from a different shore, nor humans born out of an alien. We are simply us and so it is everyone’s duty to protect us and include us, as normally as possible.”
How to help? Rimi’s asks:
• Direct funding to support legal fees, case preparation, and stipends for trans immigrants and asylum seekers.
• Partnerships with attorneys and legal clinics willing to assist.
• Institutional backing, not just symbolic gestures, from city departments and nonprofits.
• Public advocacy to demand that trans immigrants be included in every immigrant-serving system.
Pax Ahimsa Gethen (they/them) is a queer Black trans writer and editor. They live in San Francisco with their spouse Ziggy.