EMILY KASK

“I always have to be two people at once,” Jess Enriquez Taylor said. “And I always want to be ready to be myself.”

Ms. Taylor crosses the border into the United States regularly.

Jess Enriquez Taylor put on her makeup at her mother's apartment in Calexico, Calif., as clients of her mother, a dressmaker, inspected a wedding dress. Her mother tolerates her daughter's gender identity, but she lives in subsidized housing for the elderly and is not allowed to have anyone else live there.

Ms. Taylor cooks dinner with her mother at her mother's apartment.

Ms. Taylor at the Imperial Valley L.G.B.T. Center in El Centro, Calif.

A support group at the center.

Ms. Taylor at her brother's home in Mexicali, where she returns when she cannot find a place to stay in the United States.

Sofia Gonzalez made breakfast before going to work as an insurance agent. She works in Calexico, Calif., and lives in Mexicali with her partner, Bryan.

Ms. Gonzalez preparing for a drag performance at Porky's Divine in Mexicali.

Ms. Gonzalez performs as Sofia Kahlo. “You’re like a celebrity, everyone wants a picture," she said. "But as a transgender woman in everyday life, you’re seen in a completely different light."