INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS
COVID: Bogus Cover for Ugandan LGBTQ Shelter Raid
Arresting 20, nation known for anti-gay politics seizes chance to repress queer rights
BY MATT TRACY
Police in Uganda raided
a youth shelter on
March 29 and arrested
20 queer individuals on
charges related to violating coronavirus
related social distancing
regulations, throwing their lives
and health into jeopardy and fueling
concern that the nation is using
the global pandemic to clamp
down on LGBTQ rights.
Uganda has imposed rules intended
to reduce the spread of coronavirus,
which authorities used
as justifi cation for the arrests of 14
gay men, two bisexual men, and
four transgender women, according
to The Guardian. The Human
Rights Awareness and Promotion
Forum (HRAPF), which provides
legal representation to marginalized
people in Uganda and is supporting
those who were arrested,
A month after Children of the Sun Foundation announced that the organization received a grant for a
shelter, Ugandan cops raided the place.
said the residents were staying at
the Children of the Sun Foundation
(COSF) shelter in the nation’s
capital of Kampala.
As they were arrested, two victims
were beaten and the rest were
TWITTER/ @COSFUGANDA
taunted due to their sexual orientation,
according to HRAPF, which
noted that lawyers for the group
were on the scene during the raid.
“Information gathered shows
that the community members in
the area and the leadership were
worried about the ‘homosexual’
behavior of the youths who they
believed to be a bad infl uence in
the area,” HRAPF said in a written
statement.
Mayor Hajj Abdul Kiyimba of
the local Nsangi Municipality authorized
the raid and personally
physically assaulted two of the
people who were arrested and interrogated
them about their sexual
orientation, the attorneys said.
Among the most devastating
takeaways from the raid came after
the residents were hauled off to
prison. Police searched the shelter
to fi nd evidence of homosexuality
and offi cers confi scated bottles of
HIV prevention medication known
as PrEP, as well as HIV testing
kits and condoms — which are all
much-needed resources in a na-
➤ UGANDA, continued on p.21
CIVIL RIGHTS
Amid Crisis, Trump DOJ Targets Trans Student-Athletes
Barr rips Connecticut policy allowing kids to compete in accordance with gender identity
BY MATT TRACY
While the coronavirus crisis overwhelms
hospitals and states beg
the federal government for emergency
assistance, the Trump administration
is allocating time and resources
toward attacking transgender student-athletes.
The Justice Department (DOJ) is now explicitly
opposing a policy in Connecticut that allows
student-athletes to compete in accordance
with their gender identity, marking the latest
chapter in an ongoing battle over whether trans
youth should have the right to play sports in
the state.
The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic
Conference (CIAC) has maintained that its policy
is simply a refl ection of state law protecting
transgender student-athletes and that it is
also aligned with Title IX, a 1972 federal civil
rights law intended to protect individuals from
discrimination on the basis of sex in education
institutions that receive federal funding — a
category that includes virtually every school in
US DOJ
Following Donald Trump’s model of governing by “hunch,” Attorney
General William Barr submitted a deeply opinionated statement arguing
that trans student-athletes should not have the right to play.
the nation.
But the administration, which last year
tasked the Offi ce of Civil Rights with the responsibility
of investigating the policy, is now
taking advantage of the public’s focus on the
coronavirus crisis to rail against the CIAC by
pushing far-right talking points about gender
when nobody is watching.
The DOJ statement was fi led in connection
with a lawsuit challenging the CIAC policy.
In a March 24 statement of interest signed
by Attorney General William Barr, the administration
stated that the CIAC’s interpretation of
Title IX “may not account for the real physiological
differences between men and women.”
“Instead, schools must have certain biological
males — namely, those who publicly identify as
female — compete against biological females,”
the statement, misgendering trans girls, noted.
“In so doing, CIAC deprives those women of the
single-sex athletic competitions that are one of
the marquee accomplishments of Title IX.”
In response to the CIAC’s assertion that the
1972 federal law protects the student-athletes,
the Justice Department wrote, “They are incorrect.”
“Title IX and its implementing regulations
➤ DOJ ON TRANS ATHLETES, continued on p.21
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