Ymania Brown

Ymania Brown
Born(1963-09-11)11 September 1963
Died15 September 2025(2025-09-15) (aged 62)
Berlin, Germany
Known forLGBTQ rights advocacy

Lealaitagomoa Toalepaialii Tuisina Ymania Brown-Gabriel (11 September 1963 – 15 September 2025), better known as Ymania Brown, was a Samoan LGBTQ rights activist and lawyer.

Brown served as co–Secretary General of ILGA World from 2019 to 2024, as co-President of Interpride, and as Executive Director of Transgender Europe from 2024 until her death.

Background

Brown was born on 11 September 1963[1][2][3] and grew up in Samoa.[4] She began identifying as a girl at age three, which her mother was supportive of, but her father was resistant to.[5] Her mother left the family when she was nine, in response to domestic violence exacerbated by her father's alcoholism.[4] She helped raise her younger sibling after her mother left.[4] One of her father's cousins moved in with the family, and he sexually abused Brown for multiple years. She left Samoa to join her mother and stepfather in New Zealand.[4]

Brown later moved to Australia, but struggled to find jobs due to discrimination based on her gender identity.[4] She became homeless, and worked as a sex worker in Sydney.[4] She was able to save enough money to have gender-affirming surgery in 1989.[4]

After her surgery, Brown moved to Europe and worked as a model.[4] A few years later, she returned to New Zealand to attend college.[4] She held a master's degree in law.[6] In the late 1990s she returned to Sydney, where she found a corporate job for a software company through one of her university lecturers.[4] First working in human resources and later becoming in-house legal counsel, Brown continued to work in a corporate setting in Sydney for the next twenty years.[7] She chose to become a full-time activist during the COVID-19 pandemic.[8]

Activism

Brown served as Executive Director of TGEU[9] (from July 2024 until her death), as co-secretary general of ILGA World (from March 2019 until November 2024),[7] and as Co-President of Interpride.[4][10][11] She also worked as technical director of the Samoa Fa'afafine Association (from at least June 2013)[12] and with Sydney World Pride through Equality Australia.[7][4]

In 2014 Brown acted as the co-chair of ILGA Oceania.[4] She later became co-chair of the Global Interfaith Network for People of All Sexes, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression (GINSSOGIE) and the International Trans Fund.[4] She also served on advisory boards for Astraea and WorldPride (Copenhagen 2021).[13]

Brown was involved with campaigns to have the Samoan government recognise adoption by LGBT individuals and to repeal laws that criminalised "impersonation of a woman".[4][10] Her advocacy primarily focused more on financial equality than marriage equality.[14] She also encouraged Australia to focus on LGBT rights as part of their foreign policy.[15]

She served as a matai across four districts in Samoa.[13]

Personal life and death

Brown identified as both a trans woman and as faʻafafine.[4] She had two sons, whom she adopted from the sister of a previous partner living in Samoa.[5][4] She was Catholic.[16]

Brown died on 15 September 2025, aged 62, at the Charité's German Heart Center in Berlin, Germany, from medical complications following a planned heart surgery.[7][3]

Recognition and awards

  • Shivananda Khan Award for Extraordinary Achievement, 2020 Asia Pacific HERO Awards, APCOM Foundation[6]

References

  1. ^ "Born for this: Fa'afāfine, matai, and now ... MP?". RNZ. 29 July 2025. Retrieved 16 September 2025.
  2. ^ TGEU. "Tuisina Ymania Brown memorial page". Remembr. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  3. ^ a b "In loving memory of Ymania Brown". TGEU. 16 September 2025. Retrieved 16 September 2025.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "An extraordinary story of diversity and inclusion: In-house counsel & advocate Ymania Brown". College of Law Limited. Archived from the original on 11 July 2023. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  5. ^ a b "Miss Fa'afafine: Behind Samoa's 'third gender' beauty pageant". BBC News. 1 September 2016. Archived from the original on 23 March 2023. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  6. ^ a b Vaness (7 February 2020). "AWARD WINNING ACTIVIST WARNS OF INCREASING VIOLENCE AGAINST TRANSGENDER PEOPLE IN ASIA PACIFIC". apcom.org. Retrieved 16 September 2025.
  7. ^ a b c d Paletta, Daniele (16 September 2025). "ILGA World mourns the death of former co-Secretary General Tuisina Ymania Brown". ILGA World. Retrieved 16 September 2025.
  8. ^ "Champions of Pride 2021 From the Territories". Advocate. 1 July 2023. Archived from the original on 11 July 2023. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  9. ^ "Ymania Brown set to join TGEU as Executive Director". TGEU. 15 July 2024. Archived from the original on 7 October 2024. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
  10. ^ a b "Tuisina Ymania Brown". Peace Post. Archived from the original on 11 July 2023. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  11. ^ Riley, John (1 June 2025). "WorldPride 2025 Calls for Global LGBTQ Solidarity". Metro Weekly. Archived from the original on 6 September 2025. Retrieved 16 September 2025.
  12. ^ Paletta, Daniele (6 January 2016). "ILGA meets… Tuisina Ymania Brown, activist". ILGA World. Retrieved 16 September 2025.
  13. ^ a b "In Loving Memory of Ymania Brown". International Trans Fund. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  14. ^ "Jobs more important than marriage to Samoa's fa'afafine". Samoa News. 5 September 2018. Archived from the original on 11 July 2023. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  15. ^ Knott, Matthew (19 February 2023). "Australia can be LGBTQI rights champion in Asia-Pacific". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 11 July 2023. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  16. ^ "Before Speaking at UN, LGBTI People and Advocates Gather at the Garrison Institute". Garrison Institute. 3 November 2017. Archived from the original on 22 April 2024. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
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