➤ UGANDA, from p.20 ➤ DOJ ON TRANS ATHLETES, from p.20
tion where it is diffi cult for marginalized
individuals to gain access to
necessary healthcare services.
The arrests certainly seem unreasonable
and suspicious, especially
considering that the 20 LGBTQ
residents were not gathering
by choice; their presence in a shelter
served as proof that they had no
other place to go. The arrests also
have no public health value given
the concern that prisons serve as
hotbeds for virus transmission because
of inmate proximity.
Those arrested also face serious
barriers to due process as part of
Uganda’s coronavirus regulations.
Lawyers are banned from traveling
during the crisis because they are
not considered essential workers,
meaning the detainees will lack legal
representation.
Uganda’s strict anti-LGBTQ laws
— and a culture of intolerance dating
back to British colonial rule
— curtail any signifi cant public
display of queer life. But there are
some organizations dedicated to
LGBTQ Ugandans, including not
just COSF, which offers HIV testing
and other services, but also Sexual
Minorities Uganda, a non-governmental
organization dedicated to
the queer community. The late David
Kato, who rose to prominence
as a visible LGBTQ rights activist
in Uganda before his murder in
2011, was a part of Sexual Minorities
Uganda.
Contrary to the charges levied
by police, both organizations have
taken proactive measures to prevent
the spread of coronavirus.
Sexual Minorities Uganda issued
a statement on March 20 — before
any confi rmed cases of coronavirus
surfaced in the nation — encouraging
members of the LGBTQ
community to avoid in-person
visits and instead communicate
with the organization via phone or
email. COSF posted public health
warnings about COVID-19 as early
as March 17, asking its members
to take precaution and wash their
hands. By March 23, it offered even
bolder guidelines.
“We appeal to all our members
to stay at home,” COSF said on
Facebook . “Stop meeting friends
and partners up until this storm
passes.”
prohibit discrimination solely ‘on
the basis of sex,’ not on the basis
of transgender status, and therefore
neither require nor authorize
CIAC’s transgender policy.
Barr’s rambling statement of interest
later veered off into bizarre
tangents comparing defi nitions of
sex in dictionaries from 1972, the
year Title IX was implemented, in
an effort to disprove the application
of that law in the context of
the rights of transgender studentathletes.
The Trump administration’s position
on this issue is diametrically
opposed to the conclusions of the
Obama administration Justice Department
in the former president’s
fi nal years.
The legal battle in Connecticut
has centered on a pair of studentathletes,
Andraya Yearwood and
Terry Miller, whose success in
track has prompted conservatives
to use them as props in their arguments
— despite the girls having
also lost races to cisgender girls.
Three Connecticut-based cisgender
student-athletes, supported
by the anti-LGBTQ Alliance Defending
Freedom, fi led a lawsuit
in US District Court in Connecticut
in February where they alleged
the cisgender student-athlete’s
“dreams and goals” were squashed
because they were competing with
trans athletes.
The ADF also supported three
different student-athletes in a Title
IX sex discrimination complaint
last June, at which point they
begged the Offi ce of Civil Rights to
probe the situation and stop trans
student-athletes from participating
in girls’ athletics. The girls in both
cases competed against Yearwood
and Miller, who have been backed
by the American Civil Liberties
Union (ACLU).
Chase Strangio, the deputy director
for transgender justice with
the ACLU’s LGBT and HIV Project,
reacted to the statement of interest
shortly after it was made public.
“Wow,” he wrote in a Twitter post.
“The Trump administration just
fi led a statement of interest in CT
to argue that girls who are trans
are ‘biological males’ and it violates
Title IX to protect trans people. The
audacity. This is so cruel.”
RIDE FOR HALF PRICE
Starting in late January, low-income New York City residents
who are at or below the federal poverty level may qualify for
a half-priced transit fare using a Fair Fares MetroCard.
Check your eligibility at nyc.gov/fairfares
or call 311 for more information.
GayCityNews.com | April 9 - April 22, 2020 21
/fairfares
/GayCityNews.com
