Ygona Moura: A Tragic Symbol of Neglect and Structural Violence

Ygona Moura, a Brazilian trans woman and activist, was living in a shelter during the COVID-19 pandemic—a time already marked by severe hardship for LGBTQIA+ individuals, especially trans people, who often face systemic exclusion, unemployment, and homelessness.

During this vulnerable period, someone with malicious intent obtained the address of the shelter where Ygona was staying and began using delivery apps to send repeated food orders in her name to pay. Delivery drivers began showing up nonstop at the shelter, leading to her eviction. In the middle of a global health crisis, Ygona lost the only roof over her head, exposing her to even more risk, hunger, and instability. Her personal data was weaponized to orchestrate targeted harassment—both physical and psychological.

This was not a random misfortune. It was a death shaped by multiple layers of political, institutional, and societal negligence. Transphobia had already pushed her to the margins. Administrative indifference drove her further into vulnerability.

In such a hostile environment, where trans people are routinely denied safety, dignity, and healthcare, public skepticism about the official cause of death—COVID-19—is understandable. Calling for an autopsy in cases like this isn’t merely a bureaucratic gesture. It’s a demand for justice, especially for communities consistently silenced and rendered invisible.

Ygona’s case shows how digital platforms can become tools of violence and how urgent it is to establish public policies that protect trans people—particularly in times of crisis, like pandemics or homelessness. But even more urgently, it calls for a broader conversation about data privacy, platform accountability, and how prejudice mutates and spreads in the digital age.

Ygona wasn’t just a social media figure. She was the voice of thousands of trans and marginalized individuals who are denied visibility, protection, and dignity every day in Brazil and beyond. Her tragic story exposes a feedback loop of digital and structural violence: hatred starts in comment sections, escalates into real-life harassment, and ends in institutional abandonment.

To this day, there has been little effort to investigate or hold anyone accountable for the digital harassment that ultimately cost Ygona her life. This silence speaks volumes about how society values trans lives—or fails to.

The public outcry that followed her passing cannot be reduced to performative mourning. It must be a rallying cry for justice, visibility, and structural change. Ygona Moura is not just a memory—she is a warning, and her fight must continue.

Watch the video where Ygona speaks out against the harassment she suffered: