INTERNATIONAL
Plagues COVID-19 Visits on LGBTQ East Africans
Facing food insecurity, job losses, police abuse, barriers to HIV meds, even suicide
BY MATT TRACY
The coronavirus crisis
has wreaked havoc on
queer communities in
East Africa, where an
LGBTQ refugee in Kenya appears
to have hanged himself in despair
on April 13 and a sudden hunger
crisis in nearby Uganda has forced
HIV-positive gay men to stop taking
their HIV treatment medication
because they can no longer tolerate
the effects of it without food.
The economic downturn, food insecurity,
and health consequences
have compounded the existing
hardships in a region where queer
individuals have already suffered
from mistreatment by law enforcement
as well as cultural stigma.
Cops in Uganda last month raided
a shelter for LGBTQ youth and
charged individuals with violating
coronavirus-related social distancing
regulations — even though
they were gathered in the shelter
because they could not be safe outside
it.
The Refugee Coalition of East
Africa (RefCEA), which consists of
multiple groups aimed at improving
the lives of LGBTQ refugees in
the region, acknowledged the reports
of a man who hanged himself
in front of the headquarters of
the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees. While there are
few details surrounding the man’s
death, RefCEA offi cials said “he
was without hope, without options,
and left in a state where he believed
that to leave this world was preferable
to existing under the circumstances
of his life.” Queer refugees
have, in the past, held protests at
that location in desperate pleas for
LGBTQ Ugandans served by the Mbarara Rise Foundation, seen here participating in PrEP training
in January, are facing food insecurity and barriers to HIV treatment as a result of the coronavirus
pandemic.
assistance.
Meanwhile, in Uganda, the Mbarara
Rise Foundation, comprised
of activists and educators who advocate
for health services and the
human rights of LGBTQ people in
western Uganda, is shedding light
on the plight of hungry HIV-positive
queer men who have lost work
due to the crisis.
“Many work in bars, casinos, or
in other gathering places, which
have all been shuttered under the
lock-down,” Mbarara Rise Foundation’s
founder and executive
director, Real Raymond, said in a
written statement. “This is a tough
situation for the LGBTQI people
who are HIV-positive who, in addition
to limited access to medical
services, have no food to eat.”
He continued, “The majority
are daily income earners and this
FACEBOOK/ MBARARA RISE FOUNDATION
means during the lockdown they
are not making a living. Many of
our members have silently stopped
taking their daily HIV treatment
due to lack of food to eat. The medications
they have been prescribed
are strong and cannot be taken on
an empty stomach, which has led
many to stop taking their medication
entirely.”
Raymond also pointed to yet another
dilemma unfolding as a result
of the precarious situation facing
HIV-positive individuals: Those
who are unable to take their medication
could leave their immune
system even more vulnerable to
coronavirus.
“Those who stopped taking their
meds are putting their lives in great
danger, but they tell me that whenever
they take them on an empty
stomach, their body becomes too
weak, feverish, and headachey,” he
said. “When I talked to one such
member, he said he is willing to resume
once he fi nds something to
eat… but for the time being, under
the current circumstances, it is
not possible.”
In response, the Mbarara Rise
Foundation launched a fundraiser
aimed at providing HIV-positive
gay Ugandans with food, masks,
and other necessities. The items
will also be provided to queer individuals
who are quarantined in
rural areas.
In addition to advocacy and
health-based services, the Mbarara
Rise Foundation has played a
purposeful role in leading economic
empowerment programs to help
queer Ugandans become fi nancially
independent. Among those
programs include opportunities
for members to learn how to bake
cakes and make bricks.
The organization is one of just a
small handful of publicly-known
groups dedicated to queer folks in
a nation that lacks LGBTQ rights
and routinely persectures members
of the community.
Those groups include the Children
of the Sun Foundation, which
serves the health, social service,
and housing needs of queer folks,
as well as Sexual Minorities Uganda,
a non-governmental organization
once led by the late David
Kato, a gay activist who was murdered
in 2011.
More than 1.4 million people in
Uganda were living with HIV as of
2018 and the percentage between
15 and 49 was 5.7 percent, according
to the Joint United Nations
Programme on HIV/AIDS, or UNAIDS.
➤ COVID & LGBTQ SENIORS, from p.8
and that’s a technology they’re familiar
with.”
That kind of improvisation in
the face of an unprecedented crisis
is not unique during a time
when people worldwide have
had to scramble to make necessary
adjustments on the fl y. Now,
many weeks into a crisis that has
slammed New York and expanded
to all corners of the nation, queer
seniors are among those who are
looking forward the most to the
time when the virus is in the rearview
mirror. But they have collectively
shown great resilience —
even in the face of a crisis during
which they have been among the
most vulnerable.
Daniels, for example, said he is
thankful that he and his husband
had moved into the same apartment
after having bounced back
and forth between their respective
homes for a long period. And Cooper,
who is single, is looking at her
own situation with a dose of optimism.
“I saw an article saying it’s hard
being single during COVID-19,
and I agree with that to a certain
extent,” Cooper said. “But if you’re
living with somebody, you can go
stir-crazy living with them. Suppose
living with an abusive person?
I’m glad I live by myself. I don’t
want to live with people. I said I’ve
been there, done that.”
April 23 - May 6,12 2020 | GayCityNews.com
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