The nephew of Harvey Milk on Thursday expressed his support for those who are protesting against police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
“I’m inspired by the protests,” Stuart Milk told the Washington Blade during a brief interview at a Fort Lauderdale restaurant. “I am really hopeful that maybe we can create some systemic change.”
Milk spoke with the Blade less than two weeks after Floyd died after then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck.
Minnesota prosecutors have charged Chauvin with second-degree murder in connection with Floyd’s death. The Associated Press notes the three other now former police officers who were with Chauvin face charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
Christopher Street West, the group that organizes Los Angeles’ annual Pride parade, has announced it will hold a march “in response to racial injustice, systematic racism and all forms of oppression.” Milk told the Blade he “would like to see more of that and hopefully one day we can do that on our global scale.”
“It’s been nine days … sometimes we see these things really light up and then fizzle out and then we move on to something else,” he said. “It’s my hope and desire that we don’t move on and that we as an LGBTQ community keep that fire burning.”
“Unless there is justice for everyone in the United States there is justice for no one,” added Milk.
Milk on Thursday also talked about the Trump administration’s campaign to encourage countries to decriminalize consensual same-sex relations.
The White House last year tapped outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell to spearhead the initiative.
The U.S. Embassy in Germany last summer hosted a group of LGBTQ rights activists from around the world. Grenell and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Kelly Knight Craft late last year organized an event on the sidelines of a U.N. Security Council meeting that focused on efforts to decriminalize homosexuality around the world.
“The campaign has had some deep back door discussions that I think are important,” Milk told the Blade. “It’s important that we keep global LGBT rights moving forward.”
Milk added “its just totally unacceptable that we have over 70 countries where it’s still illegal and criminalized to be LGBT.”
A U.S. diplomat on Monday acknowledged the coronavirus pandemic continues to have a disproportionate impact on LGBTQ people around the world.
“The COVID pandemic really highlights the challenges for the LGBTQ community,” said Acting U.S. Representative to the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Courtney Nemroff during a virtual event organized by the U.N. LGBTI Core Group that commemorated the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. “We are particularly concerned about the fear, the real fear of discrimination against members of the community when they try to seek basic health care services.”
Nemroff added the issue is “something of concern to the U.S. as well.”
OutRight Action International Executive Director Jessica Stern moderated the IDAHOBiT event in which Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the U.N.’s LGBTQ rights watchdog, and diplomats from Nepal and other countries around the world participated. Billie Bryan, president of Colours Cayman, an advocacy group in the Cayman Islands, and Khawla Bouaziz, secretary general of Mawjoudin, a Tunisian LGBTQ rights organization, also spoke.
The IDAHOBiT event took place hours after a Ugandan court ordered the release of 19 LGBTQ people who were arrested at a shelter in the country’s capital of Kampala on March 29 and charged with violating coronavirus-related social distancing rules.
Uganda is among the dozens of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized. Nemroff made a broad reference to a campaign led by acting national intelligence director Richard Grenell, who is also the U.S. ambassador to Germany, that encourages nations to legalize homosexuality.
“The United States has put a special accent this year on … amplifying our efforts on decriminalization and on equality,” said Nemroff.
IDAHOBiT, which was previously known as the International Day Against Homophobia, commemorates the World Health Organization’s decision to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder. Neither the White House, nor the State Department publicly acknowledged IDAHOBiT, but the U.S. Mission to the U.N. and many American embassies around the world did.
“In recognition of the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia, the United States Mission to the United Nations reaffirms its commitment to the principle that ‘the inherent dignity and … the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,’” reads a statement the U.S. Mission to the U.N. issued on Sunday. “Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is the duty of every nation to protect and defend the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all people.”
The U.S. Embassy in Spain on Sunday in a tweet said, “today and every day we affirm that human rights and fundamental freedoms are universal and that each person has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
The U.S. Embassy in Kazakhstan in a statement it posted to its Twitter account said it “stands in solidarity with LGBTI Kazakhstanis and displays the rainbow flag today in recognition of this important day.” The U.S. Embassy in Germany in a tweet noted consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized in more than a third of the world’s countries.
Today we commemorate the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia. #IDAHOBIT The U.S.Mission to #Kazakhstan stands in solidarity with LGBTI Kazakhstanis and displays the Rainbow Flag today in recognition of this important day. LGBTI rights are human rights
Over one-third of the world’s countries still criminalize #LBGTI people. Being LGBTI is #notacrime. The U.S. urges gov’ts to decriminalize and stands in solidarity with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex persons worldwide. On #IDAHOTB and every day. #IDAHOTB2020
This year’s IDAHOBiT commemorations took place against the backdrop of the pandemic that has killed more than 300,000 people around the world. They also coincide with continued criticism of the Trump administration’s domestic LGBTQ rights record and its overall foreign policy.
The U.S. is among the countries that are members of the U.N. LGBTI Core Group, which promotes LGBTQ rights at the U.N. The U.S. nevertheless did not sign the IDAHOBiT statement the group issued on Sunday.
“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is clear: Human rights are universal and should apply equally to all people everywhere,” reads the statement. “Today and every day the UN LGBTI Core Group works to address the silence around the ongoing discrimination against LGBTI people globally.”
The statement further states the “ongoing public health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges that affect the global community as a whole but additionally have a particular and unique effect on those who face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, including LGBTI persons.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a human security crisis that is widespread in scope and impact, with survival, health, safety, economic security and human rights being endangered as a result. In order to truly address the impacts and consequences of the pandemic, the needs of those most vulnerable and most affected must be addressed,” it reads.
A State Department official on Tuesday told the Washington Blade in response to its question about why the U.S. did not sign the U.N. LGBTI Core Group statement that American policy “on LGBTI human rights is focused on mitigating violence and the decriminalization of LGBTI conduct.”
“The statements issued by the Core Group and the Equal (Rights) Coalition included broad language that went beyond the scope of the department’s policy mandate,” said the official. “The statements also go beyond settled U.S. law.”
The official did not further elaborate on how the statements “went beyond the scope of the department’s policy mandate” and “go beyond settled U.S. law.” The official did stress the U.S.’ “longstanding commitment to protecting the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all people, including LGBTI persons, is well-known” and “so too is its interest in ensuring that any statements it joins are consistent with U.S. law and policy.”
“In this case, a virtual abbreviated negotiation process for a lengthy statement made it preferable to release our own statement, which went up on the USUN Mission’s website and social media yesterday,” added the official.
The family of a transgender woman with HIV who died in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in 2018 has filed a federal lawsuit against five private companies that were responsible for her care.
The Transgender Law Center and two immigration lawyers — Daniel Yohalem in Santa Fe., N.M., and R. Andrew Free in Nashville — filed the lawsuit on Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico. Management and Training Corporation, LaSalle Corrections, Global Precision Systems, TransCor America and CoreCivic are named as defendants.
Hernández, who was from Honduras, entered U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody on May 9, 2018, when she asked for asylum at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego. She was later sent to the Cibola County Correctional Center, a facility in Milan N.M., that CoreCivic, which was previously known as the Corrections Corporation of America, operates.
Hernández was admitted to Cibola General Hospital in Grants, N.M., shortly after she arrived at the detention center. Hernández died at Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque, N.M., on May 25, 2018.
The lawsuit alleges Hernández on May 14, 2018, “exhibited visible signs of deterioration requiring immediate medical intervention” when Management and Training Corporation transported her and 12 other trans detainees from San Ysidro to the San Luis Regional Detention Center, a facility in San Luis, Ariz., that LaSalle Corrections operates.
“MTC denied Roxsana and her fellow detainees food, water, and restroom access throughout their transfer,” reads the lawsuit.
The lawsuit notes one detainee said Hernández appeared “very weak and pale, almost yellow in pallor, with dark circles under her eyes” when she was at the San Luis Regional Detention Center.
Hernández was at the facility for only a “few hours,” but she “used the bathroom several times to vomit or spit up phlegm.” The lawsuit claims Hernández “was so weak from fever that she spent most of her time at SLRDC (San Luis Regional Detention Center) laying on the floor, coughing.”
“Officers of Defendant LaSalle Corrections witnessed Roxsana’s obvious state of medical need and failed to offer her emergency medical assistance,” reads the lawsuit. “Eventually during her time at SLRDC Roxsana was so ill she could not eat and had to use the restroom approximately every 15 minutes because she had such bad diarrhea.”
The lawsuit states Hernández and more than two dozen other trans detainees at around midnight on May 15 boarded a bus that took them to the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa.
“Roxsana was very ill during the four-hour bus ride and pleaded for help to a person who sat with her, saying words to the effect of, ‘Help me! I don’t know if I’m going to survive,’” reads the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges a LaSalle Corrections officer “threatened” Hernández and the other detainees with whom she was traveling. The lawsuit says one detainee asked officers in both English and Spanish to provide medical care to Hernández, but they “ignored her.”
“When they arrived at the airport, one of the people being transported by LaSalle alongside Roxsana told an officer with beige pants and long red hair that Roxsana was very sick and needed immediate medical attention,” reads the lawsuit. “The officer refused to respond to her. During her five hour stay in the Mesa airport Roxsana remained in LaSalle’s custody and was provided no medical care or assistance for her sickness.”
The lawsuit states Hernández and the other detainees flew to El Paso, Texas, and arrived at the El Paso Processing Center at around 3:15 p.m. The lawsuit notes Hernández remained at the facility until the morning of May 16, 2018.
“She and her fellow asylum seekers woke up to ICE officers presenting them food that they were instructed to eat for breakfast at around 5:00 a.m.,” reads the lawsuit. “Roxsana attempted to eat the meal provided, but ended up vomiting and then going back to sleep.”
“By this time, Roxsana appeared to all around her to be gravely ill,” reads the lawsuit. “Despite LaSalle’s knowledge of Roxsana’s urgent need for medical care, during the entire time Roxsana was in LaSalle’s custody LaSalle did not provide her with medical care or assistance to alleviate her suffering.”
The lawsuit says Hernández and 29 other detainees who were going to the Cibola County Correctional Center boarded a bus at around 9 a.m.
“Each person was provided an 8-ounce bottle of water and sandwich to last the entire five and-half hour journey to the Cibola detention center in New Mexico,” says the lawsuit, which notes the temperature in El Paso that day reached 97 degrees before noon.
The lawsuit notes Hernández asked an officer for water during the trip, but he told her that he did not speak Spanish.
Hernández reportedly “had a fever and produced a significant amount of phlegm during the trip” and had bloody sputum when she blew her nose. The lawsuit also notes Hernández “felt dizzy and extremely exhausted, and her stomach hurt badly.”
The lawsuit says the bus arrived at the ICE Criminal Alien Program facility in Albuquerque at around 2:30 p.m.
“Despite GPS’s knowledge of Roxsana’s urgent need for medical care, during the entire time Roxsana was in GPS’s custody GPS did not provide her with medical care or assistance to alleviate her suffering,” it reads.
The lawsuit says officers from TransCor drove Hernández and 28 other trans detainees to the Cibola County Correctional Center, which is roughly 80 miles west of Albuquerque. The detainees arrived at the facility shortly after 8 p.m.
“Throughout this trip, Roxsana continued to appear gravely ill,” reads the lawsuit, noting she was unable to eat. 94. “Roxsana required immediate medical assistance that TransCor employees neglected to provide.”
The Cibola County Correctional Center at the time had a unit specifically for trans women who were in ICE custody.
The lawsuit states Hernández was booked into the facility at around 1:15 a.m. on May 17. It notes she spent the night in the facility’s “medical waiting room.”
“Roxsana lay on the floor, only getting up to use the restroom or drink a beverage officers brought around 4 a.m.,” reads the lawsuit. “Roxsana was so weak and ill that she became delirious.”
The lawsuit states Hernández was brought to an “onsite medical provider who conducted an intake screening.” Hernández received “electrolytes and Ensure” before she returned to a holding cell.
The lawsuit says “an onsite medical provider” examined Hernández at around 10 a.m. She reportedly weighted 89 lbs., and was diagnosed with “dehydration, starvation, extreme weight loss, muscle wasting, untreated HIV, fever and cough.” The lawsuit also notes Hernández’s blood pressure was 81/61 and she had “rough breathing sounds and increased amount of white phlegm mucus excreted in abnormally large quantities.”
The lawsuit states officers at the detention center called an ambulance that brought Hernández to Cibola General Hospital at 11:44 a.m. Hernández later that day was airlifted to Lovelace Medical Center where she died.
“Throughout her hospitalization, CoreCivic officers shackled Roxsana at her wrists and both ankles to her hospital bed except when medical personnel needed to remove them for certain medical procedures,” reads the lawsuit. “At least one armed CoreCivic officer guarded Roxsana at all times and checked that her restraints were secured at least every 20 minutes.”
“Each time medical staff needed CoreCivic officers to remove her restraints, the officer on duty made a call to ‘central’ to receive approval to remove them, delaying Roxsana’s receipt of medical care,” notes the lawsuit. “CoreCivic officers kept Roxsana shackled even after her treating medical providers medically paralyzed her and when she first went into cardiac arrest.”
‘Every private entity tasked with Roxsana’s care failed her’
An autopsy the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator performed concluded Hernández died from Castleman disease associated with AIDS.
A second autopsy` that former Georgia Chief Medical Examiner Kris Sperry performed at the Transgender Law Center’s request concluded the cause of death was “most probably severe complications of dehydration superimposed upon HIV infection, with the probable presence of one or more opportunistic infections.” The second autopsy also found “evidence of physical abuse” that included bruising on Hernández’s rib cage and contusions on her body.
“Every private entity tasked with Roxsana’s care failed her,” said Dale Melchert, a Transgender Law Center staff attorney, in a press release that announced the lawsuit. “What we know about the short time that Roxsana was in immigration custody is that the officers tasked with transporting her saw her health deteriorate, heard her cries for help, and did nothing. She needlessly suffered as a result of their inaction.”
ICE has denied allegations that Hernández was abused while in its custody.
Amanda Gilchrist, a spokesperson for CoreCivic, on Thursday told the Washington Blade in a statement the company offers “our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Roxsana Hernández.” Gilchrist also noted Hernández was “gravely ill” when she arrived at the Cibola County Correctional Center.
“When she arrived, she went through the intake process, which includes a medical evaluation,” said Gilchrist. “The medical team made the determination that she needed to be immediately transported to an outside hospital.”
“Ms. Hernandez was only at Cibola for 12 hours, where she stayed in the intake area before being transported to the hospital where she passed away nine days later,” she added.
Issa Arnita, a spokesperson for the Management and Training Corporation, on Thursday told the Blade in an email the company “disputes the allegations in the lawsuit, but is unable to comment any further because of the litigation.” Arnita in a second email noted Hernández was in Management and Training Corporation’s custody for “less than four hours, more than a week before her death.”
The top court in Brazil on May 8 ruled the country’s ban on men who have sex with men from donating blood is unconstitutional.
Reuters reported seven of the 11 judges who sit on the Brazilian Supreme Court ruled in favor of lifting the ban, which prohibited MSM from donating blood for 12 months. The issue had been before the Supreme Court since 2016.
Aliança Nacional LGBTI+, a Brazilian LGBTQ advocacy group, described the ruling as “historic.”
The Supreme Court issued its ruling against the backdrop of the global coronavirus pandemic.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last month eased restrictions for MSM who want to donate blood. The new policy allows them to become blood donors if they have not had sex with another man for three months, as opposed to 12 months under the previous policy that had been in effect since 2015.
Chile and Italy are among the countries that allow MSM to donate blood without a deferral period.
Statistics from Johns Hopkins University of Medicine’s Coronavirus Resource Center indicate there are 163,510 confirmed coronavirus cases in Brazil, and 11,207 deaths. Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Ceará and Amazonas are among the states with the most coronavirus cases.
Brazil has the highest number of coronavirus cases in Latin America. President Jair Bolsonaro — who has been sharply criticized for his rhetoric against LGBTQ Brazilians, women and other underrepresented groups — has downplayed the pandemic’s threat to his country and spoken out against measures designed to curb its spread.
Dozens of activists and advocacy groups have sharply criticized the government of Puerto Rico over its response to the murders of several LGBTQ people on the island.
Pedro Julio Serrano, founder of Puerto Rico Para Tod@s, a Puerto Rican LGBTQ advocacy group, on Wednesday noted during a Zoom press conference that 10 LGBTQ Puerto Ricans have been murdered over the last 15 months. They include Alexa Negrón Luciano, a homeless transgender woman who was killed in Toa Baja on Feb. 24.
Authorities last week found the bodies of Serena Angelique Velázquez and Layla Pelaez, who were both trans women, in a car in Humacao that had been set on fire. Penélope Díaz Ramírez, who was also a trans woman, was killed in a Bayamón jail on April 13.
Kevin Fret, a well-known gay trap artist, was murdered in San Juan’s Santurce neighborhood on Jan. 10, 2019.
“They are hunting us,” said Serrano during the press conference. “They are killing us.”
Natasha Alor, a trans activist in Puerto Rico, said she is “tired of living in fear.” Alor added many trans people in the U.S. commonwealth are afraid to leave their homes.
“It is very said that there are people in this country who are afraid to go out in the street just because of who they are,” said Alor.
The press conference took place hours before the Puerto Rico Police Department announced the arrest of two men in connection with the murders of Velázquez and Pelaez.
Puerto Rico’s hate crimes and nondiscrimination laws include both gender identity and sexual orientation, but prosecutors in the U.S. commonwealth rarely apply them. Serrano and other activists who participated in the press conference have repeatedly said Puerto Rican authorities’ response to anti-LGBTQ hate crimes remains woefully inadequate.
The Broad Committee for the Search for Equity, a coalition of LGBTQ advocacy groups known by the acronym CABE, on Monday demanded a meeting with Puerto Rico Public Safety Director Pedro Janer and Puerto Rico Police Commissioner Henry Escalera. A press release that CABE released after Wednesday’s press conference said activists plan to “demand answers on the status of the investigations (into the LGBTQ Puerto Ricans’ murders), the plan for surveillance and prevention of these crimes, as well as a guarantee that the processes will be carried out in accordance with the protocols and free of prejudice.”
“We are seeking justice for each one of the victims,” said Serrano during the press conference.
Many of the activists who spoke also sharply criticized Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez over her administration’s response to the murders.
Vázquez — a member of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party — in response to Negrón’s murder urged anyone with information to contact authorities. Vázquez in a tweet also said authorities “will work with the diligence and sensitivity the case merits.”
The governor has not publicly responded to the murders of Velázquez, Pelaez and Díaz. Vázquez has also not commented on the case of Yampi Méndez Arocho, a trans man who was killed in Moca on March 5.
Vázquez last August succeeded then-Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, who resigned after a series of homophobic and misogynistic messages between him and members of his administration became public. Vázquez was Puerto Rico’s justice secretary before she became governor.
“Wanda Vázquez’s silence is deafening,” Serrano told the Washington Blade during Wednesday’s press conference. “Her silence makes her complicit in these murders.”
CABE spokesperson Carmen Milagros Vélez Vega also criticized Vázquez, noting the Puerto Rican government and its institutions have close ties with anti-LGBTQ fundamentalist churches.
“What they have done is promote hatred in this country and they have given people permission to use their hands to kill our brothers and sisters and to terrorize everyone,” added Vélez, referring to the churches.
Two advocacy groups on Monday urged U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release two gay Cuban men with HIV from their custody because they are at increased risk for the coronavirus.
Lambda Legal and Immigration Equality, along with Vinson and Elkins LLP, a Houston-based law firm, on Monday made the request in a letter they sent to ICE on behalf of the two men, who are identified as Ramón and Iván.
A press release says the two men “were severely persecuted in Cuba because of their political activism and sexual orientation.” It also notes they have been ICE custody since last October.
Ramón and Iván remain in ICE custody at the IAH Secure Detention Facility in Livingston, Texas, which is roughly 75 miles north of Houston. Immigration Equality Legal Director Bridget Crawford in the press release says the coronavirus pandemic has put the two men at increased risk.
“Ramón and Ivan fled Cuba to seek safety in the United States and now they fear for their lives,” said Crawford. “ICE could release them today. They are both parole eligible with qualifying sponsors. But despite warnings from experts on the dire consequences of COVID-19 for people in detention, and the steps taken by jails, prisons, and judges in the criminal context to release those in custody, ICE and DHS continue to put these men in mortal danger. Instead of being treated with dignity, these asylum seekers have been shackled, kept in the dark about the COVID-19 outbreak, and denied basic necessities to keep themselves safe.”
Yariel Valdés González, a Washington Blade contributor from Cuba, spent nearly a year in ICE custody in Louisiana and Mississippi before his release on March 4. Valdés, who won asylum in the U.S. because of persecution he suffered as a journalist in his homeland, now lives with his family in Miami.
ICE: 360 detainees have tested positive for coronavirus
ICE on its website says there are 360 detainees with confirmed coronavirus cases. These include one at the IAH Secure Detention Facility.
A federal judge in California last week ordered ICE “to identify and track all ICE detainees with risk factors” and consider whether they should be released. The Immigration Equality and Lambda Legal press release notes the decision includes ICE detainees with HIV.
“It is impossible for people held in ICE detention to abide by public health guidance about social distancing and frequent hand-washing when they have limited access to soap and cleaning materials and are in frequent contact in small spaces with people who have potentially been exposed to the coronavirus,” said Lambda Legal Staff Attorney Puneet Cheema. “While no one should be subjected to detention by ICE simply because they seek asylum in the United States, in this precarious and extraordinary period where people who are detained are at increased risk of being exposed to COVID-19, ICE must let our clients — who are asylum seekers living with HIV — go.”
ICE on Monday declined to comment on the request to release Ramón and Iván.
“In March, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) convened a working group between medical professionals, disease control specialists, detention experts and field operators to identify additional enhanced steps to minimize the spread of the virus,” ICE told the Blade in an email. “ICE has since evaluated its detained population based upon the CDC’s guidance for people who might be at higher risk for severe illness as a result of COVID-19 to determine whether continued detention was appropriate.”
ICE further noted it has released “nearly 700” detainees “after evaluating their immigration history, criminal record, potential threat to public safety, flight risk and national security concerns.”
“This same methodology is currently being applied to other potentially vulnerable populations currently in custody and while making custody determinations for all new arrests,” ICE told the Blade.
ICE also said the number of people in their custody has dropped by more than 4,000 since March 1.
Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf during a March 20 press conference at the White House announced the closure of the U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico borders to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Wolf also said undocumented immigrants will no longer be allowed into the U.S.
President Trump last week issued an executive order that effectively stops immigration into the U.S. for 60 days. OutRight Action International Executive Director Jessica Stern in response to the directive noted “immigration processes are largely frozen across the world; many borders remain closed and international travel is negligible.”
UNAIDS and MPact Global Action for Gay Men’s Health and Rights on Monday said governments around the world must stop targeting LGBTQ people during the coronavirus pandemic.
“HIV has taught us that violence, bullying and discrimination only serve to further marginalize the people most in need,” said UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima in a press release her organization released with MPact. “All people, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, are entitled to the right to health, safety and security, without exception. Respect and dignity are needed now more than ever before.”
The press release notes governments and law enforcement officials have targeted LGBTQ people during the pandemic.
Ugandan police late last month raided an LGBTQ shelter in the country’s capital of Kampala and arrested 20 of its residents. The Associated Press reported Ugandan authorities have charged them with violating the country’s social distancing rules.
The UNAIDS and MPact Global Action for Gay Men’s Health and Rights press release notes Ulysease Roca Terry, a 25-year-old gay Belizean man with HIV, died earlier this month after his arrest for violating the curfew imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the Central American country. Media reports indicate police officers beat Terry after they arrested him.
Philippine police also publicly humiliated three LGBTQ people, among others, after they violated the country’s coronavirus curfew. UNAIDS and MPact note a police captain apologized after the incident — during which officers forced the three LGBTQ people to dance and kiss each other — went viral.
Deputy Hungarian Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén on March 31 introduced an omnibus bill with a proposal that would ban transgender people from legally changing their gender in the country. The Hungarian Parliament the day before overwhelmingly approved a controversial measure that gave Prime Minister Viktor Orbán more authority in order to combat the pandemic in his country.
“We are receiving reports that government and religious leaders in some countries are making false claims and releasing misinformation about COVID-19 that has incited violence and discrimination against LGBTI people,” said MPact Executive Director George Ayala. “Organizations and homes are being raided, LGBTI people are being beaten, and there has been an increase in arrests and threatened deportation of LGBTI asylum seekers.”
People with HIV more vulnerable to coronavirus
Johns Hopkins University of Medicine’s Coronavirus Resource Center notes there are more than 3 million confirmed coronavirus cases around the world, with 985,443 of them in the U.S. The global pandemic has killed 210,611 people.
People with HIV are among those who are at higher risk for the coronavirus. Activists around the world with whom the Washington Blade has spoken in recent weeks say the pandemic has also left LGBTQ people even more vulnerable because lockdowns and curfews prevent them from working.
Diálogo Diverso, an LGBTQ advocacy group in Ecuador, earlier this month created an “emergency fund” to help LGBTQ people and Venezuelan migrants during the pandemic. Danilo Manzano, the group’s director, told the Blade that poverty has made the coronavirus’ impact even worse on the aforementioned groups.
“They don’t have the financial resources to be able to support themselves day-to-day,” said Manzano. “It is therefore a very difficult situation.”
UNAIDS and the Global Network of Sex Work Projects in an April 8 statement noted the pandemic has also had a disproportionate impact on sex workers because of lockdown measures and their inability to access government assistance programs created in response to the pandemic. American advocacy and HIV/AIDS service organizations have also demanded coronavirus treatment and prevention programs include safeguards to prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
“Now more than ever, we must stand together to protect and promote the health and human rights of LGBTI people worldwide,” said UNAIDS and MPact in their press release.
Advocacy groups on Thursday filed a class action lawsuit that demands U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement release all transgender people who are in their custody because they are more susceptible to the coronavirus.
The Transgender Law Center and the Rapid Defense Network, along with Ballard Spahr LLP, a Philadelphia-based law firm, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The lawsuit names as plaintiffs 13 trans women who are in ICE detention centers in Virginia, Louisiana, Texas, Colorado and California. Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf and U.S. Attorney General William Barr are named as defendants.
The lawsuit states trans people “in civil immigration detention — many of whom came to this country seeking safety from violence and persecution in their home countries because of their gender identities — are among the most vulnerable during the current pandemic.” It also says ICE “has not provided and cannot implement sufficient measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 in its facilities.”
One of the plaintiffs — a trans woman from Mexico who is in ICE custody at the Florence Correctional Center in Florence, Ariz., — says two of her fellow detainees who live in her pod have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Another plaintiff — a trans woman from El Salvador at the Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, La., who has been in ICE custody for nearly a year — says nurses do not wear personal protective equipment and personnel at the facility have not provided her with information about the coronavirus. A trans Jamaican woman with HIV who is in ICE custody at the Nevada Southern Detention Center outside of Las Vegas says “staff … including medical staff, do not always wear gloves and masks.”
A trans Honduran woman who is in ICE custody at the Caroline Detention Facility in Bowling Green, Va., says it is “impossible for her to practice social distancing” because more than three dozen people live in her dormitory. Another trans Honduran woman who is detained at the Aurora Contract Detention Center in Aurora, Colo., claims she learned about “a confirmed case of COVID-19” at the facility while watching the news.
“Transgender people in civil immigration detention, as a group, are at a greater risk of contracting the virus that causes COVID-19 than the general population and, if they do become infected, are more likely to become seriously ill or die,” reads the lawsuit.
The lawsuit, among other things, notes trans people are more likely to have underlying medical conditions and have higher rates of HIV than other groups. The lawsuit also notes ICE detention centers “are plagued by chronic and well-documented failures to provide proper medical care to transgender people in civil immigration detention — problems that have been exacerbated by the pandemic and pose another enhanced risk of infection, disease and death for transgender people in civil immigration detention.”
Roxsana Hernández, a trans Honduran woman with HIV who was briefly detained at the Cibola County Correctional Center in Milan, N.M., died on May 25, 2018, while she was in ICE custody. Johana “Joa” Medina León, a trans Salvadoran woman with HIV, passed away at a hospital in El Paso, Texas, on June 1, 2019, three days after ICE released her from the Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral, N.M.
The families of both trans women have filed wrongful death lawsuits against ICE and the Department of Homeland Security that oversees it.
“ICE’s failures to provide adequate medical care during the pandemic — building upon its inability to do so even in the best of times — put transgender people in civil immigration detention at further risk of serious illness or death should they become infected with the coronavirus,” reads the lawsuit filed by the Transgender Law Center and the Rapid Defense Network.
“Because ICE cannot provide adequate medical care to them, transgender people in civil immigration detention should be released immediately to safer environments,” it adds.
ICE on its website says there are 287 detainees with confirmed coronavirus cases. These include one at the Caroline Detention Facility, two at the Winn Correctional Center and 10 at the Florence Detention Center.
The Transgender Law Center is among the dozens of advocacy groups that demanded the release of all trans ICE detainees in a letter they sent to Wolf and Acting ICE Director Matthew Albence on Jan. 21. More than 40 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have made the same request.
ICE in previous interviews and statements to the Washington Blade has defended its treatment of trans detainees.
A 2015 memorandum then-ICE Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations Thomas Homan signed requires personnel to allow trans detainees to identify themselves based on their gender identity on data forms. The directive, among other things, also contains guidelines for a “respectful, safe and secure environment” for trans detainees and requires detention facilities to provide them with access to hormone therapy and other trans-specific health care.
U.S. District Court Judge Jesus Bernal of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on Monday ordered ICE to “identify and track all ICE detainees with risk factors” and said it “should consider the willingness of detainees with risk factors to be released.” The ruling notes ICE as of April 4 will consider for release detainees who are over 60, detainees “of any age having chronic illnesses which would make them immune-compromised” and those who are pregnant or have given birth within the last two weeks.
ICE on Thursday told the Blade in a statement the agency “is reviewing cases of individuals in detention deemed to be at higher risk for severe illness as a result of COVID-19.”
“Utilizing CDC guidance along with the advice of medical professionals, ICE may place individuals in a number of alternatives to detention options,” said ICE. “Decisions to release individuals in ICE custody occur every day on a case-by-case basis.”
Statistics indicate ICE as of April 10 has released 693 detainees during the pandemic.
Immigration Equality last week said ICE released four of its gay clients with HIV who had been detained at the Winn Correctional Center; the Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, La.; and La Palma Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz. Trans Queer Pueblo, a Phoenix-based group that advocates on behalf of undocumented LGBTQ immigrants, says five LGBTQ asylum seekers who had been at La Palma Correctional Facility and the Eloy Detention Center, which is also in Arizona, left ICE custody on March 23.
ICE on March 4 released Yariel Valdés González, a Blade contributor who won asylum based on persecution he suffered in his native Cuba because he is a journalist. Valdés had been in ICE custody in Louisiana and Mississippi for nearly a year before his release.
ICE less than two weeks after Valdés’ release suspended in-person visitation at all of its detention facilities as part of its response to the pandemic. Media reports nevertheless indicate more than 30,000 people remain in ICE custody.
Transgender activists in Latin America have expressed concern over rules that allow people to leave their homes during the coronavirus pandemic based on their gender.
A “pico y género” rule that took effect in Panamá on April 2 allows men to leave their homes on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays in order to buy food and medications and to go to the bank. Women can leave their homes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Reuters reports Panamanians, regardless of their gender, cannot leave their homes on Sundays.
The Peruvian government implemented a similar “pico y género” rule earlier this month.
Gabriela Oporto Patroni, a lawyer with Centro de Promoción y Defensa de los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos, a Peruvian LGBTQ advocacy group known by the acronym PROMSEX, said police officers and soldiers in several Peruvian cities harassed trans women who had left their homes to buy food and medicine on days when women were allowed to do so.
Oporto said many of these incidents were recorded and posted to social media.
“It has caused problems for many trans people, people with non-binary gender expression,” Oporto told the Washington Blade on April 14 during a WhatsApp interview from Lima, the Peruvian capital.
Claudia López, the first woman and first lesbian elected mayor of the Colombian capital of Bogotá, implemented a “pico y género” rule in her city that allows women to leave their homes on even days and men to leave their homes on odd days.
Fundación de Grupo de Acción y Apoyo a Personas Trans, a Bogotá-based trans advocacy group known by the acronym GAAT, in a press release notes authorities will enforce the rule based on a person’s gender identity. GAAT nevertheless notes the regulation “opens the door to situations of discrimination and police abuses.”
“Similar measures have been implemented in Panama and Peru,” notes GAAT in its press release.
“In the case of Peru, the president called for no discrimination, but it did not prevent abuses against trans women in shops and even worse by the police who were in charge of implementing the measures,” added GAAT.
GAAT says it reached out to Bogotá officials who work directly on LGBTQ-specific issues and urged them to ensure the police don’t discriminate against trans people while they implement the “pico y género” rule.
Luis Ernesto Gómez, who is López’s chief-of-staff, in an April 8 tweet confirmed the rule allows trans people to leave their homes on days based on their gender identity.
Discrimination and violence based on gender identity remains commonplace throughout Latin America. Activists throughout the region with whom the Blade regularly speaks say police officers are among those who target trans people.
The Latin American and Caribbean Network of Trans People, a group known by the acronym REDLACTRANS, in a press release notes there has been “an increase in institutional violence throughout the region” during the coronavirus pandemic.
REDLACTRANS specifically singles out Colombia, Peru, Panama, Honduras and Ecuador as countries in which it has seen this trend play out. REDLACTRANS also notes Gabriela Redondo, a trans activist in Honduras, is among the dozens of people who have been victims of “arbitrary arrests” since the pandemic began.
“Trans people of Latin America and the Caribbean are a population at-risk against the coronavirus,” says REDLACTRANS in its press release. “If the responses of the states are not aligned to this reality, they increasingly lead us to death.”
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has issued a landmark ruling that says Peru is responsible for the rape and torture of a transgender woman.
Azul Rojas Marín alleges police officers in Casa Grande, a town in the La Libertad region of northern Peru that is roughly 370 miles northwest of the country’s capital of Lima, detained her on Feb. 25, 2008. Rojas says she was forcibly stripped and beaten before two officers sodomized her with a police baton.
Rojas filed a formal complaint against the officers two days after the incident took place.
The court’s ruling — released on March 12, but made public on April 6 — notes local prosecutors launched an investigation into Rojas’ allegations, but they later dropped it. Rojas appealed the decision, but a Peruvian court in January 2009 “dismissed the investigation into the crimes of aggravated sexual assault and abuse of power.”
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights accepted Rojas’ case nearly a decade later.
The ruling orders Peru to “provide medical, psychological and/or psychiatric treatment” to Rojas and to prosecute the officers who tortured her. The ruling also directs Peru to track anti-LGBTQ violence in the country and develop a national strategy to respond to them.
Gabriela Oporto Patroni, a lawyer with Centro de Promoción y Defensa de los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos, a Peruvian LGBTQ advocacy group known by the acronym PROMSEX, represented Rojas.
Oporto on April 8 told the Washington Blade during a WhatsApp interview from Lima that Rojas “is very pleased with the sentence.” Oporto also said the ruling sends a strong message to LGBTQ Peruvians who remain disproportionately vulnerable to violence and discrimination because of their gender identity and/or sexual orientation.
“The Peruvian state in the entire process before the court, before the commission, all the time has denied the existence of discrimination against LGTB people in Peru,” Oporto told the Blade.
“It is absolutely false that there is no discrimination against LGTB,” added Oporto. “The court has recognized that this context persists to this day.”
Oporto said Peru has not responded to the ruling.
“We have not had any communication from them,” Oporto told the Blade.
The Organization of American States created the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which is based in Costa Rica, in 1979 in order to enforce provisions of the American Convention on Human Rights. Peru is among the countries in the Americas that recognize the convention.
The court has previously ruled in favor of LGBTQ rights.
The court in 2018 issued another landmark ruling that recognized same-sex marriage and trans rights in the Western Hemisphere. The court in 2012 ruled in favor of Karen Atala, a judge who lost custody of her three daughters to her ex-husband because she is a lesbian.
The court also works closely with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which has urged countries in the region to decriminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations and address anti-LGBTQ violence and discrimination.