Jowelle de Souza has made history, being sworn in today as this country’s first transgender Senator. The businesswoman, social and political activist took her oath this afternoon, after being nominated by the Opposition bench.

De Souza, 47, has been inactively involved in politics for the past decade, running on an independent ticket for the San Fernando West Constituency back in 2015.

At the time, she said her decision to run for office was driven by a high level of dissatisfaction with the quality of representation in the constituency.

“I honestly thought that we the people of San Fernando…were so completely fed-up of the way politics ran in T&T that we were really ready to vote for an independent to show the rest of the country that we are going put the first independent in the House of Representative to be able to do what is right for the country,” De Souza said in a 2015 interview with the T&T Guardian.