Transgender NFP candidate DIVINA LOLOMA discovered her true identity after fleeing to Australia following PAAPI's violent 1987 Coups
"When Divina Loloma was living in Australia, her voice began to change. It was 1987 and she'd left her home country, Fiji, in the aftermath of a violent military coup. Sydney would offer her safety and better opportunities for education. However, it didn't take long for Ms Loloma to discover much more — a place where she felt she could truly be herself."
  |  |  From India With Loloma HIJRAS: India's Third Gender, and a favourite of Hindu Bhajanias |
WELCOME BACK, LOLOMA from the NFP:
Transgender NFP candidate DIVINA LOLOMA discovered her true identity after fleeing to Australia following PAAPI's violent 1987 Coups. Now, she is welcomed back in the PAP-NFP girmit coalition pact, standing as a FIRST transgender candidate for Biman Prasad's NFP.
DISCRIMINATION: Unfortunately, we are yet to see Prasad and Loloma hand-in-hand at political rallies. He is very quick to be seen with his political husband, the Paapi Sitiveni Rabuka, campaigning for him to become the next Prime Minister to lead PAP-NFP government
*He should have no issue with Loloma, for after all INDIA, the land of his coolie ancestors, has the HIJRAS - eunuchs, intersex people, or transgender people who live in communities that follow a kinship system known as guru-chela system.
*They excel in song and dance, to the songs of the Hindu BHAJANIAS.
Fijileaks: We have NO problem with Loloma standing as a candidate, even though Rabuka's GOD (who told him to COUP in 1987 leading to Loloma fleeing Fiji) created Adam and Eve, NOT Adam and Steve.
The National Federation Party says they have seen certain media targeting their candidate, Divina Loloma, highlighting her transgender status and falsely and maliciously claiming the Party’s support for same sex marriage.
NFP President, Pio Tikoduadua says they are making it absolutely clear that the NFP has not, is not and will never support same sex marriage. He says it is unlawful.
Tikoduadua says this is yet another example of despicable character assassination and political immorality from the puppets of the ruling FijiFirst Party that is clutching at straws while drowning in its cesspool of lies and deceit.
The NFP President says the NFP did not select Divina as their candidate because of her gender.
Tikoduadua says they selected her because she is an outstanding Fijian citizen who campaigns for vulnerable people and for economic opportunities for young people.
He says she believes in the human rights of all of Fiji’s people, and that is what the NFP believes in.
Tikoduadua says some media have sensationalized attacks on Divina from extremist candidates from minor parties, and now the fake accounts are trying to claim that this means that NFP advocates same sex marriage.
He says it is useless to remind FijiFirst and some media to stick to the truth and talk about issues like how to reduce the cost of living, fix the state of our hospitals and public health system, ensure consistent supply of water in our taps, ensure the quality of our education system or apply the brakes to our ballooning debt.
NFP President, Pio Tikoduadua says they are making it absolutely clear that the NFP has not, is not and will never support same sex marriage. He says it is unlawful.
Tikoduadua says this is yet another example of despicable character assassination and political immorality from the puppets of the ruling FijiFirst Party that is clutching at straws while drowning in its cesspool of lies and deceit.
The NFP President says the NFP did not select Divina as their candidate because of her gender.
Tikoduadua says they selected her because she is an outstanding Fijian citizen who campaigns for vulnerable people and for economic opportunities for young people.
He says she believes in the human rights of all of Fiji’s people, and that is what the NFP believes in.
Tikoduadua says some media have sensationalized attacks on Divina from extremist candidates from minor parties, and now the fake accounts are trying to claim that this means that NFP advocates same sex marriage.
He says it is useless to remind FijiFirst and some media to stick to the truth and talk about issues like how to reduce the cost of living, fix the state of our hospitals and public health system, ensure consistent supply of water in our taps, ensure the quality of our education system or apply the brakes to our ballooning debt.
When Divina Loloma was living in Australia, her voice began to change. It was 1987 and she'd left her home country, Fiji, in the aftermath of a violent military coup.Sydney would offer her safety and better opportunities for education. However, it didn't take long for Ms Loloma to discover much more — a place where she felt she could truly be herself.
"Coming to Australia in 1987 was something that was eye-opening for me," she told the ABC. Growing up male, in an indigenous Fijian family with strong traditional beliefs, Ms Loloma said she had always felt slightly different.
In high school, she found herself attracted to men but did not identify as gay.
At 25, Ms Loloma met two people who would change the course of her life: transgender Pacific Islander women named Erona and Divina, who were living in Sydney at the time. "Looking at them transit [from male to female] … looking after their health, looking after their mental capacities, reassuring themselves that they are able to live more peacefully.
"It was my dream come true," she said.
Divina Loloma drew inspiration from other transgender Pacific Island women. Ms Loloma began to see a pathway towards becoming the person she wanted to be. She met a doctor and started hormone-assisted therapy, embarking on a transition to womanhood that wouldn't have been possible in Fiji.
"I felt safe [in Australia]. It was a safe space for me," she said. However, the process wasn't easy. Ms Loloma was living with Fijian relatives in Sydney, but as her body began to change, she felt the urge to leave.
"The hormone assignment was changing myself, it was really changing my body structures. And then I started to develop breasts," she said.
"I had to be alone."
Bitter backlash at home
Ms Loloma had not told her family back in Fiji that she was transitioning, but when her voice began to change, her dad asked her what was going on. Divina Loloma was tired of hiding who she truly was.(Supplied: Divina Loloma)Still, she kept her new identity a secret until she decided to return home a few years later when her father's health declined.
When Ms Loloma arrived at the airport in Fiji, journalists were waiting to photograph her and interview her about her transition.
In local newspapers the next day, Ms Loloma's father first learned that his child identified as a woman.
"It was right on the front page, 'Fiji's first sex change', and, for him, it was shocking," she said.
"I felt devastated because my family couldn't accept me the way I am."
Despite the backlash, Ms Loloma was tired of hiding who she truly was.
"I said to them, 'This is basically who I am and there's nothing that's going to change'," she said.
Determined to make a positive impact in her community, she began to advocate for marginalised and gender-diverse people in her country. She became chair of the anti-poverty organisation United Rescue Mission (Fiji) and got involved with Haus of Khameleon, a local transgender activist group.
Hopes to 'represent the most vulnerable'
Decades on, Ms Loloma is now vying to become Fiji's first transgender politician, running as a candidate for the National Federation Party (NFP), Fiji's oldest political party. Ms Loloma said she wanted to focus on providing economic empowerment to young and marginalised people in Fiji.
"In the last 15 years, I feel that a lot of people have suffered and here we are. I stand to represent the most vulnerable," she told ABC.
NFP leader Biman Prasad said the party believed in the human rights of everyone, but did not elaborate on specific policies pertaining to the LGBTQI community. With Fiji's election to be held on December 14, Ms Loloma has been campaigning across the country.
"Surprisingly, coming into these villages, they are very well accepting. They just want to hear what I have to say," she said. For indigenous transgender woman and LGBTQI activist Ratu Eroni Ledua Dina, it's a significant moment.
"To have one of our own standing for election — the possibility of occupying space and having a seat in parliament — is a great milestone achieved for us," Ms Dina said.
She said there was a need for more trans-specific policies, particularly in the health and justice sectors.
"Like the provision of hormonal therapy and counselling," she said.
Ms Dina said transgender citizens tended not to access mainstream healthcare due to stigma, leading to higher rates of non-communicable diseases and sexually transmitted diseases.
"Trans people need their own spaces that protect them," she said.
"Coming to Australia in 1987 was something that was eye-opening for me," she told the ABC. Growing up male, in an indigenous Fijian family with strong traditional beliefs, Ms Loloma said she had always felt slightly different.
In high school, she found herself attracted to men but did not identify as gay.
At 25, Ms Loloma met two people who would change the course of her life: transgender Pacific Islander women named Erona and Divina, who were living in Sydney at the time. "Looking at them transit [from male to female] … looking after their health, looking after their mental capacities, reassuring themselves that they are able to live more peacefully.
"It was my dream come true," she said.
Divina Loloma drew inspiration from other transgender Pacific Island women. Ms Loloma began to see a pathway towards becoming the person she wanted to be. She met a doctor and started hormone-assisted therapy, embarking on a transition to womanhood that wouldn't have been possible in Fiji.
"I felt safe [in Australia]. It was a safe space for me," she said. However, the process wasn't easy. Ms Loloma was living with Fijian relatives in Sydney, but as her body began to change, she felt the urge to leave.
"The hormone assignment was changing myself, it was really changing my body structures. And then I started to develop breasts," she said.
"I had to be alone."
Bitter backlash at home
Ms Loloma had not told her family back in Fiji that she was transitioning, but when her voice began to change, her dad asked her what was going on. Divina Loloma was tired of hiding who she truly was.(Supplied: Divina Loloma)Still, she kept her new identity a secret until she decided to return home a few years later when her father's health declined.
When Ms Loloma arrived at the airport in Fiji, journalists were waiting to photograph her and interview her about her transition.
In local newspapers the next day, Ms Loloma's father first learned that his child identified as a woman.
"It was right on the front page, 'Fiji's first sex change', and, for him, it was shocking," she said.
"I felt devastated because my family couldn't accept me the way I am."
Despite the backlash, Ms Loloma was tired of hiding who she truly was.
"I said to them, 'This is basically who I am and there's nothing that's going to change'," she said.
Determined to make a positive impact in her community, she began to advocate for marginalised and gender-diverse people in her country. She became chair of the anti-poverty organisation United Rescue Mission (Fiji) and got involved with Haus of Khameleon, a local transgender activist group.
Hopes to 'represent the most vulnerable'
Decades on, Ms Loloma is now vying to become Fiji's first transgender politician, running as a candidate for the National Federation Party (NFP), Fiji's oldest political party. Ms Loloma said she wanted to focus on providing economic empowerment to young and marginalised people in Fiji.
"In the last 15 years, I feel that a lot of people have suffered and here we are. I stand to represent the most vulnerable," she told ABC.
NFP leader Biman Prasad said the party believed in the human rights of everyone, but did not elaborate on specific policies pertaining to the LGBTQI community. With Fiji's election to be held on December 14, Ms Loloma has been campaigning across the country.
"Surprisingly, coming into these villages, they are very well accepting. They just want to hear what I have to say," she said. For indigenous transgender woman and LGBTQI activist Ratu Eroni Ledua Dina, it's a significant moment.
"To have one of our own standing for election — the possibility of occupying space and having a seat in parliament — is a great milestone achieved for us," Ms Dina said.
She said there was a need for more trans-specific policies, particularly in the health and justice sectors.
"Like the provision of hormonal therapy and counselling," she said.
Ms Dina said transgender citizens tended not to access mainstream healthcare due to stigma, leading to higher rates of non-communicable diseases and sexually transmitted diseases.
"Trans people need their own spaces that protect them," she said.
Tawaivuna All People’s Party leader, Tuiloma Tawaivuna has called on National Federation Party leader, Professor Biman Prasad to remove transgender candidate, Divina Loloma from contesting the 2022 General Election.
In a scathing attack in a video, which was shared on social media, Tawaivuna says it is an abomination for a person who was born as a man to identify as a women, in reference to Loloma.
Tawaivuna says it is biblically wrong to imitate the opposite sex and says if Prasad and People’s Alliance leader, Sitiveni Rabuka continue to accept Loloma as a candidate, it will be the beginning of their downfall.
The party leader, who is also the founder of the Eleventh Hour Ministry, slammed people trying to advocate for gay rights movement in the country, in particular for same-sex marriage, saying it is also biblically wrong.
Loloma is Fiji’s first transgender candidate.
FBC News has sent questions to the NFP leader for a response to Tawaivuna’s statement but is yet to receive a response.
In a scathing attack in a video, which was shared on social media, Tawaivuna says it is an abomination for a person who was born as a man to identify as a women, in reference to Loloma.
Tawaivuna says it is biblically wrong to imitate the opposite sex and says if Prasad and People’s Alliance leader, Sitiveni Rabuka continue to accept Loloma as a candidate, it will be the beginning of their downfall.
The party leader, who is also the founder of the Eleventh Hour Ministry, slammed people trying to advocate for gay rights movement in the country, in particular for same-sex marriage, saying it is also biblically wrong.
Loloma is Fiji’s first transgender candidate.
FBC News has sent questions to the NFP leader for a response to Tawaivuna’s statement but is yet to receive a response.
 |  Fijileaks founding Editor-in-Chief had condemned gay bashing as far back as 2005 but it seems not much has changed in Fiji; he had also asked Methodist Church why it had forgiven Sitiveni Rabuka's adultery but continued to condemn homosexuality in Fiji |  GAY rights icon and activist Ashwin Raj |
"In 1994, at a meeting of SVT caucus [Sitiveni] Rabuka admitted the adultery accusation, saying his wife and talatala (pastor) had both forgiven him. In 1999, Rabuka was once again dragged into another sex scandal. The Daily Post (Fiji) ran a story, on the holy Good Friday, about the 'Kama Sutra' episode. "I'M NOT 'KAMA SUTRA', SAYS RABUKA ON SEX". He denied the allegations...It was reported in some detail, in the Fijian language press, that a senior Cabinet member had been caught having a sexual dalliance with a young, married golfer in the changing rooms at the Fiji Golf Club in Suva...But what has adultery got to do with homosexuality? Although there is no direct connection between the two, it does expose the hypocrisy and the double standard the Methodist Church practices about morality. There is no denying that both adultery and homosexuality are frowned by a vast majority of Christians and those of other faiths. A fanatical segment of Hindus were equally quick to condemn FLP leader Mahendra Pal Chaudhry when allegations of adultery, 'The Tea Lady' scandal' surfaced when he was Prime Minister, despite his vehement protestations of any wrongdoing. Now, the assistant general secretary of the Methodist Church, says homosexuality was an immoral way of life. Worst, the Methodist Church claimed that homosexuals were responsible for the poverty in the country. And, yet, in the same breath, it went on to declare that those church ministers who broke their vows before God and the congregation by indulging in extra-martial affairs would be forgiven...The religious leaders from all faiths should concentrate on the shameful rise in rape, incest, and child molestation..." VICTOR LAL, 6 September 2005, Fiji's Daily Post
