Ymania Brown: A Life of Courage, Faith, and Intersectional Justice
Ymania Brown at an ILGA World Conference in Los Angeles, 2nd September 2018. Photo Credit: Rāwā Karetai-Wood-Bodley
A Light Gone Too Soon
This week, the global Rainbow family mourns the passing of Tuisina Ymania Brown, a Samoan fa’afāfine, trans woman, lawyer, activist, mother, grandmother, and visionary leader.
Ymania was many things: a bridge between cultures, a tireless voice for trans rights, an advocate for Indigenous dignity, a faith interlocutor, and a soul who turned personal adversity into collective strength. Her journey reminds us all why we fight and defend human rights.
“In her leadership, Ymania embodied cultural wisdom, courage, and the conviction that all lives are worthy.”
From Samoa to the World, Carrying Burdens and Hope
Her life was not easy. Born in Samoa, she began identifying as a girl at age three with her mother’s support but grew up facing violence, rejection, and hardship. She later moved to New Zealand, and then Australia, surviving homelessness and sex work to fund her gender-affirming surgery in 1989.
She went on to a successful corporate law career in Australia, but her true calling was advocacy. She dedicated her later years to trans rights, Rainbow organising, faith dialogues, and human rights, bringing the Pacific and Global South into global conversations that often ignored them.
Intersectionality, Faith, and Global Trans Justice
What made Ymania remarkable was her insistence that no advocacy be one-dimensional. Her feminism, trans rights work, Pacific identity, and faith were woven together.
She served as Co-Secretary General of International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) ,World (2019–2024).
She became Executive Director of TGEU — Trans Europe and Central Asia in 2024.
She held senior leadership roles in InterPride, GIN SSOGIE, and the International Trans Fund (ITF) .
She championed decriminalisation campaigns in Samoa and across the Pacific.
She carried Rainbow voices into UNCRPD, UNHRC, UNDRIP, and Commonwealth processes.
Her advocacy was intersectional to the core: Pacific, Indigenous, disabled, faith-based, and trans. She taught us that liberation without culture, faith, and community is incomplete.
“She turned her survival into a shared legacy for us all.”
Serving Together, Remembering Her
For me, this loss is deeply personal. Ymania and I served together as Co-Chairs of ILGA Oceania and as board members of ILGA World.
When I was new to international advocacy, she was there. She guided me, promoted me, and supported me without hesitation. What I will miss most is her nurturing nature.
I must admit, I assumed she was a similar age to me. She never carried herself as paternalistic, never diminished me. She always treated me as an equal, and I valued that more than she probably knew. To be seen as a peer, as a fellow leader, in global advocacy spaces that can feel intimidating, that was a gift.
Her passing is not only a loss to the world, but to those of us who were fortunate to work alongside her, to be mentored by her in quiet ways, and to walk in the waka she helped build.
Celebrating Legacy, Carrying the Flame
Her sudden passing in Berlin leaves a vacuum in global human rights communities. But her legacy remains alive in every Rainbow leader across the Pacific, every trans and rainbow advocate in faith spaces, every bisexual or Indigenous voice insisting on being heard at the UN.
She reminded us to lead with courage, humility, and faith. She reminded us to hold aroha and resistance in the same breath. She reminded us that intersectionality is not a theory, but life itself.
“She taught us that true liberation is inclusive: across gender, race, faith, disability, and culture.”
Rest in power, Ymania. We will miss you.
🖤 Ko te pae tawhiti whāia kia tata. Ko te pae tata whakamaua kia tīna. | Seek out the distant horizons so they may become close. Hold fast to the close horizons so they may be secured.