AIDS activist group Act Up NY has called out US president Donald Trump for repeatedly calling COVID-19 the “China virus”.
Trump has been repeatedly using the terms “Chinese virus” and “China virus” to describe the coronavirus, prompting many to accuse him of promoting racism against Asian communities during the pandemic.
On March 18, Trump posted on Twitter: “I always treated the Chinese virus very seriously, and have done a very good job from the beginning, including my very early decision to close the ‘borders’ from China – against the wishes of almost all.
“Many lives were saved. The Fake News new narrative is disgraceful and false!”
AIDS activism group Act Up NY responded: “We remember a time when HIV/AIDS was called ‘gay-related immune deficiency’ aka GRID and ‘gay cancer’.
“NEVER AGAIN will we let world leaders transfer blame to communities. Trust science over discrimination always.”
Trump was asked yesterday at a press conference why he continues to call coronavirus the “China virus” after many have described the term as racist.
The reporter asking the question said: “Why do you keep calling this the Chinese virus? There are reports of dozens of incidents of bias against Chinese Americans in this country.
“Your own aide, secretary Azar, says he does not use this term. He says ethnicity does not cause the virus. Why do you keep using this? A lot of people say it’s racist.”
Trump responded: “‘Cause it comes from China. It’s not racist at all, no, not at all. It comes from China, that’s why. I want to be accurate.”
She continued to press him while he attempted to interrupt her, but he eventually said: “I have great love for all of the people from our country, but as you know China tried to say at one point … that it was caused by American soldiers. That can’t happen. It’s not gonna happen, not as long as I’m president. It comes from China.”
A photo was even taken by a Washington Post photographer showing that in the US president’s briefing notes, he had crossed out “corona” and replaced itwith the word “Chinese”.
Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization health emergencies program, told CNN: “Viruses know no borders and they don’t care about your ethnicity or the colour of your skin or how much money you have in the bank. It’s really important that we be careful in the language we use.”
He added that this is “a time for solidarity. This is a time for facts. This is a time to move forward together.”
The number of coronavirus cases in the United States is ticking steadily upward, and with it are Americans’ collective anxiety levels. But stockpiling massive caches of toilet paper and bottled water for insular forts will only lead to more shortages and more stress. Instead, the best way for us all to prepare is by looking out for one another.
Here are some ways that you can help your community make it through the chaos—and the virus too, if it does hit closer to home.
Donate to your local food bank
As the virus spreads, food banks could face additional pressures. David May, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, said that the group currently distributes 1 million pounds of food per week. But May noted that it was also preparing for the possibility of increased demand in case of virus-driven school closings or an influx of workers struggling to get by on fewer hours than usual.
When donating to your local food bank, consider starting with your wallet instead of your pantry. Donating money not only gives food banks flexibility over which supplies—including fresh foods and paper products—to offer but also lets them decide when to refresh their stocks.
Offer assistance to at-risk neighbors
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers the elderly and people with chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and lung disease to be at higher risk from the coronavirus. If you’re in a lower-risk group, reach out to your higher-risk neighbors and community members and ask them how you can help, whether by picking up prescriptions and groceries or offering other assistance. Even if they’re already fully stocked, simply sharing your plans with one another can be helpful, particularly as people spend more time at home instead of out.
“It can be very isolating for individuals if they’re staying away from the places they normally go,” Herman Schaffer, the assistant commissioner for community outreach for the New York City Emergency Management Department, told me. “Some assistance is also just [providing] community, being able to talk to someone, and connect to information.”
Plan to stay in touch from afar
As COVID-19 spreads, we’ll continue to see more people asked to work remotely or from home, more school closings, more cancelled events, and other measures associated with social distancing. Start putting a plan in place now for how you’ll stay in touch with loved ones, friends, classmates, and co-workers, even when you’re not physically seeing them.
If the idea of a day of back-to-back Google hangouts and phone calls is adding to instead of relieving your anxieties, remember that there are a lot of ways beyond a call or a video chat to keep in contact. I like to challenge distant friends to virtual matches on a chess app and to share the occasional photo from my day via group text. Scheduling an hour to game online with a friend or swapping recipes in your group chat are small measures, but they let people know that you’re thinking about them, even when you don’t see them.
Stay up on your local news
Many cities (including Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle) offer an emergency alert system, so start by checking with your municipality to find out how to sign up for text, email, or voice alerts. Once you’ve done that, it’s time to get even more local. Get in touch with your neighborhood groups and local community organizations to find out what efforts are already underway. If you or your kids attend school, check to see what kinds of plans are in place in case of closures and how best to stay informed of any changes. Sign up for neighborhood listservs and message boards so that you’ll be able to share your surpluses, pool your expertise, and call on your neighbors for help when you need it, too.
Stock up, then stop
It’s tempting to respond to footage of panicked shoppers sweeping shelves of toilet paper into their carts by mentally tabulating how many pallets you might be able to stuff into your own closets. But panic buying just contributes to shortages—and more panic. If you already have 30 days’ worth of prescriptions, food, and household supplies at home, stop shopping.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, a leading voice of medical authority as the world confronts the coronavirus, is no stranger to viral epidemics — nor protesters who once displayed him in effigy in frustration amid new infections and rising death tolls.
At the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis in the early 1990s, Fauci was at the frontlines as director of the National Institutes of Allergy & Infectious Diseases, a role he began in 1984 and continues to this day. During that time, Fauci’s research contributed to the understanding of HIV’s destruction of the immune system and therapy that has significantly contained the disease in more recent years.
Now, as a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, Fauci has provided sage advice, calmed fears, and — at times — acted as voice of accountability for the Trump administration amid efforts to contain COVID-19.
As the coronavirus epidemic began to unfold, Fauci himself compared the situation to the early days of the HIV epidemic — as well as other diseases — because “there’s still a lot that’s unknown.“
“It’s not that different than the very early years of the HIV epidemic, of the anthrax attacks, of the concern about the pre-pandemic bird flu,” Fauci said March 9 on CNN’s “New Day.” “Everything has a little bit of a different twist to it. It’s not exactly the same, but there’s always that uncertainty that gets people very anxious.”
Under Fauci’s leadership, NIH in 1987 developed AZT, or zidovudine, the first antiretroviral approved for the treatment of HIV, although the epidemic continued. After more research, when combinations of drugs were seen to be effective against HIV, NIH cleared the way for more effective therapy in 1996.
Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV & Hepatitis Policy Institute, was among the advocates fighting HIV/AIDS who hailed Fauci’s work both then and now.
“No one does a better job at explaining and conquering infectious diseases, whether it is HIV/AIDS or coronavirus, than Tony Fauci,” Schmid said. “Not only is he one of the world’s top infectious disease doctors but he knows how to articulate complicated issues and on top of it, understands how to address them utilizing an all parts of society approach. He has been there since the earliest days of the AIDS crisis and can take all of what he has learned and done over the years, including working with presidents of both parties, to now deal with the coronavirus.”
But it wasn’t always a happy relationship with HIV/AIDS activists. As the HIV/AIDS epidemic raged and continued to the claim the lives of thousands of gay men, Fauci was the target of activists who accused him of not moving quickly with new medicines to fight the disease.
According to the article, written by veteran Blade reporter Lou Chibbaro, Jr., more than 1,000 demonstrators marched through the sprawling grounds of the NIH “using placards, costumes, bull horns and red-colored tape to draw attention to their demand for faster government action on AIDS research programs.”
One photo taken at the event by the Blade — but never published until now — shows three protesters dressed in black robes and skull masks in the style of the Grim Reaper.
The three hold a large coffin-like box with letters reading, “Fauci: Resign Now — Release Compound: O.” Another holds a sign reading, “120,000 AIDS Deaths, Courtesy NIH.” Another holds up a pole within a bloody head mask on top and a sign underneath designating the effigy as “Fauci.”
“Scores of drugs and alternative treatments languish untested while more than 200 new cases of AIDS are diagnosed each day,” stated ACT UP in papers distributed at the demonstration.
Police reportedly arrested 61 protesters during the four-hour demonstration and charged them with trespassing, including five members of ACT UP/D.C.
Following the demonstration, Fauci reportedly said he was sympathetic to ACT UP’s cause, but believes its allegations were untrue. Further, Fauci was quoted as saying NIH implemented recent changes to direct more resources to fight infections diseases like HIV/AIDS.
A chief critic of Fauci was Larry Kramer, a longtime HIV/AIDS activist who helped found ACT UP in the late 1980s and remains hostile to this day. As recently as 2015, Kramer in an op-ed for The Advocate faulted Fauci for failing to live up to his promise to find a cure for HIV infection. (Kramer didn’t respond to a Blade email this week to comment on Fauci’s approach to the coronavirus.)
Kramer’s harsh words may be persiflage. Fauci was quoted in a 2012 article in the New Yorker about Larry Kramer as saying he’s come to regard the activist as a friend, crediting his work with instituting a major change in medicine against infectious diseases.
But to say the relationship between HIV/AIDS activists and Fauci was entirely frosty would be inaccurate. On Dec. 22, 1990, also as reported by the Blade, when President George H.W. Bush met with gay men with AIDS at NIH, Fauci was among those who took part in the discussion.
Also at the meeting was first lady Barbara Bush and George Bush, Jr., otherwise known as future President George W. Bush. It was the first time “a sitting U.S. president formally met with open gays,” the Blade reported at the time.
The presidential party, Fauci reportedly said, listened to the gay men in attendance and sat in on a support sessions for people undertaking NIH’s experimental AIDS drug trials. Some of the men had HIV, some had developed AIDS, the Blade reported.
The elder Bush shook hands with each of the men and presented them with a commemorative presidential tie pin, according to the Blade.
“He was really touched,” Fauci was quoted as saying. “This was not just a formality. He was really interested.”
The meeting, Fauci reportedly said, was open to the White House press corps and news photographers took photos of the elder Bush shaking hands with the men.
“But much to his disappointment, Fauci said, almost all the photos appearing in the nation’s daily newspapers the next day were of a different part of the NIH visit — when the president cradled babies with AIDS in the NIH pediatric ward,” the Blade reported.
Asia Russell, executive director of the New York-based group HealthGAP, was among the HIV/AIDS activists at the time and told the Blade this week that work was responsible for pushing Fauci into supporting the community.
“Dr. Fauci has been the target of AIDS activists’ campaigns and protests in the past, and those protests delivered results — they helped him see how access to the benefits of science is not neutral, it’s driven, or hindered, by politics, and that remains true today,” Russell said.
Thirty years after the massive protest at NIH, the nature of the virus inspiring fear among the public and responsible for the deaths of thousands worldwide has changed, but Fauci’s work has not.
Russell said Fauci in his role within the White House Coronavirus Task Force has brought to the fore shortcomings in the Trump administration’s approach to COVID-19, which she said “has been a disgrace.”
“It’s an embarrassment that Dr. Fauci, a trusted voice in public health, has to testify before Congress and make the rounds on the Sunday shows to contradict the lies the president is telling,” Russell said.
In media appearances and testimony before Congress, Fauci has made clear the severity of the coronavirus. Meanwhile, President Trump has falsely said Americans are at “low risk” of contracting the disease, predicted “it will go quickly” and said testing was available to everyone.
“It is a failing. Let’s admit it,” Fauci said last week in the testimony before the House on the lag in testing availability. Days later, Trump declared under questioning in a Rose Garden press conference he would “not take responsibility” for the delay in tests, which weren’t delivered on a massive scale until last week.
When Trump said a vaccine for coronavirus would be ready in two months (which the White House retconned as a reference to an Ebola vaccine), Fauci told the reporters it would be more like 12 to 18 months even on an expedited basis.
Fauci has also given credit to Trump, who continues to tout his travel ban on China amid early reports about the coronavirus of the evidence of his prescience about the danger. Addressing reporters last week in a White House gaggle, Fauci said that move “absolutely” made a difference in limiting new infections in the United States.
Amid self-imposed quarantines, travel bans and recommendations people not meet in groups with more than 10 people, Fauci has also reassured the American public any perception the federal government is overreacting is misplaced.
“I’ll say it over and over again: When you’re dealing with an emerging infectious diseases outbreak, you are always behind where you think you are if you think that today reflects where you really are,” Fauci said. “That’s not word speak. It means: If you think you’re here, you’re really here, because you’re only getting the results; therefore, it will always seem that the best way to address it were to be doing something that looks like it might be an overreaction.”
Michael Ruppal, executive director of the AIDS Institute, said Fauci is a trusted voice because “his communication is straight forward and direct and isn’t convoluted by political spin.”
“Dr. Fauci has been a trailblazer and leader in the HIV/AIDS pandemic since the beginning,” Ruppal said. “He has been a trusted federal partner to the HIV/AIDS community, and we appreciate having him continue to lead efforts at NIH after all these years and advancements. Dr. Fauci has been thrust forward as the federal face of the U.S. response and his integrity and honesty speaks for itself throughout his handling of this uncharted and unprecedented territory regarding COVID-19.”
But Fauci isn’t the only member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force who cut their teeth on epidemiology during the time of the HIV/AIDS crisis.
Among them is Deborah Birx, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator & U.S. Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy at the State Department, whose three-decade-long career has focused on HIV/AIDS immunology, vaccine research and global health.
At a White House briefing on Monday, Birx recalled the fight against HIV/AIDS during the height of the epidemic, urging Americans to exhibit the same tenacity in the struggle against the coronavirus.
“We had another silent epidemic: HIV,” Birx said. “And I just want to recognize the HIV epidemic was solved by the community: the HIV advocates, and activists who stood up when no one was listening and got everyone’s attention. We’re asking that same sense of community to come together and stand up against this virus.”
Russell had favorable words for both Fauci and Birx in their approach to the coronavirus pandemic amid her general criticism of the Trump administration.
“The administration’s delays, dissembling, and political games are killing people,” Russell said. “Dr. Fauci and Ambassador Birx know that activists are watchdogging this effort and are ready to raise the alarm.”
Also on the White House Coronavirus Task Force with a history of HIV research is Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control. In addition to his work against the coronavirus, Redfield is seen as the point-person for the Trump administration’s plan to beat HIV/AIDS in the Untied States by 2030.
In an interview last year with the Washington Blade, Redfield credited the LGBTQ community for coming forward to participate in testing during the early of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, saying that led to medical advances that helped thwart the disease.
But Redfield notably hasn’t been present at the White House briefings with the rest of the coronavirus task force. Meanwhile, media reports have indicated White House officials have blamed him for the sluggishness in the rollout of coronavirus testing capabilities.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere rejected the notion Redfield’s absence was of any significance. “CDC is based in Atlanta, which is where Dr. Redfield is needed, and he’s actively involved in the work of the task force and stopping the spread of COVID-19,” Deere said.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday night that the shelter-in-place order already in effect in the Bay Area and Los Angeles County will now be extended to the entire state and its 40 million residents.
The order allows for essential businesses—such as banks, grocery stores, pharmacies, food banks and gas stations—to remain open. Restaurants can also remain open for delivery and pickup only. Bars are among the non-essential businesses that will close.
Individuals can also leave their houses to take a walk or go for a jog so long as they are practicing the requisite precautions when coming into contact with another individual.
Newsom did not state how long the order will remain in effect.
Another crisis, another urgent call for blood donors, and another probably futile call on the Food and Drug Administration to fully lift the ban on gay men giving blood.
Since the coronavirus crisis began, 2,700 blood drives have been cancelled and there have been 86,000 fewer blood donations as of March 16, the American Red Cross reports.
We now face a severe blood shortage due to an unprecedented number of blood drive cancellations during this #coronavirus outbreak. Make an appointment to help patients counting on lifesaving blood: https://rdcrss.org/2weMYZI
Gay men were, until 2015, forbidden from donating blood. This “lifetime ban” dated back to all those having gay sex from 1977 onwards. In 2015, the FDA said it was OK for men who have sex with men to donate blood, but not if they were sexually active. Only those who had abstained from sex for a year could give blood.
“Ultimately, the 12-month deferral window is supported by the best available scientific evidence, at this point in time, relevant to the U.S. population,” Dr. Peter Marks, deputy director of the FDA’s biologics division, said at the time, according to Reuters.
“It is ridiculous and counter to the public health that a married gay man in a monogamous relationship can’t give blood, but a promiscuous straight man who has had hundreds of opposite sex partners in the last year can,” said Jared Polis, then a Democratic congressman and co-chair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus, and now the governor of Colorado (making him the nation’s first out-gay man elected as governor).
Polis was right; like so many things about the discrimination LGBTQ people face it is often the sheer absurdity of the discrimination that is most offensive. Everything—from the blood ban to discrimination in the workplace, to “religious freedom” being used to chip away at rights and freedoms—comes down to a fierce disgust of LGBTQ people; the sex they have, or the biology they possess. That disgust is then translated into discriminatory law-making.
According to a recent study, there has been no significant increase in HIV infections from blood transfusions in the US since the FDA’s 2015 rule change.
The gay blood ban came into place in 1983, in the fledgling days of AIDS. It said everything about the priorities of the Reagan administration that it was so quick to exclude gay men from donating blood, and so utterly negligent when it came to caring for them as they died in their many thousands.
The blood ban set the tone for that administration’s callous disregard when it came to AIDS care, treatment, and prevention. It was LGBTQ activists and allies who forced the Government to act; and even then gay people and people with HIV were relentlessly stigmatized and demonized. The continued blood ban, and its ridiculous 12-month celibacy clause, is a shameful hangover from that.
To suggest that only gay men who have not had sex for as year are “clean” enough to give blood is homophobic.
As GLAAD reported in 2018, “The FDA screens every unit of blood donated for infectious diseases prior to entering the donation pool. Current tests for HIV are able to detect the presence of the virus with high precision within 11 days after infection.
“Based on this science, a 12-month deferral for MSM does not make any sense; furthermore, the test is able to detect HIV with such a high precision that only 1 in 3.1 million units of blood infected with HIV will make it past the screen. Therefore, opening up blood donations to MSM donors would not cause a significant difference in HIV transmission risk from blood transfusions.”
How is a gay man’s sexual behavior effectively patrolled, and deduced by the FDA? Truth serum? Lie detector? The presentation of clean underwear that can be carbon-dated?
What would stop any man simply lying about who they sleep with to give blood? What stops a promiscuous straight guy from lying? How would the FDA know? One of the curious ironies of the FDA’s policy is that it relies on a gay man’s honesty to perpetuate the discrimination the FDA is executing against him. We have to do the right thing, so the FDA can do the wrong thing to us.
If the FDA’s blood ban is based on an assumption of gay promiscuity, it follows that it automatically assumes that straight men do not sleep around; and that their heterosexuality does not need to be patrolled or pre-judged. Please, FDA, share with us how you know so much about each individual blood donor’s sexual behavior with no prior knowledge, without asking them anything, and without testing their blood?
Enlighten us: What is it about sexually active, heterosexual blood donors that automatically—no knowledge required—makes them preferable over a gay man whose sexual behavior you have no clue about?
GLAAD notes that while it may be true that “MSM blood donors have a higher risk of contaminating blood supplies due to disproportionately high rates of HIV as compared to other groups in the U.S…the MSM population is not homogenous.”
The blood ban, as it extends to each individual person wanting to donate, is simply predicated on assumptions and stereotypes; and as GLAAD says, on stigma rather than science. What does the FDA mysteriously know about gay and straight people, and how and when and with whom they have sex, before they’ve even filled in the requisite forms?
The real message of the gay blood ban, and it is a message echoed in prejudice and prejudicial laws aimed at LGBTQ people, is that gay sex is bad; and that the sex a gay person has is all that they are, and all you need to know about them to discriminate against them.
It also presumes an incredibly narrow definition of what “gay sex” might involve. What if you are a gay man who does not have penetrative sex, but nevertheless considers the sex you are having to be sex? What if you have penetrative sex, and that sex is safe?“The issue isn’t the amount of sex gay men have or the kind of sex they are having, but the questions the FDA asks of all donors, gay and straight”
“Too bad. Go away,” the FDA says, knowing gay men’s bodies and minds before they have even spoken to them. “We don’t want your blood.”
The FDA wants men who have sex with men to renounce having sex; then they’re OK. It doesn’t want men having sex with women to do this. Or women having sex with men. Everything about the ban places straight sex on some kind of purer pedestal than gay sex.
Surely, the issue isn’t the amount of sex gay men have or the kind of sex they are having, but the questions the FDA asks of all donors, gay and straight, about the sex they’re having and with who they’re having it.
In 2015, when the ban was partially lifted—with that all-important 12-month celibacy clause—gay men were told they were kind of good enough to be blood donors, but kind of not.
If the FDA really wants gay blood, it should be on the same basis that it accepts heterosexual blood. Make giving blood equal for all. Make everyone go through the necessary hoops to ensure the blood supply is safe.
Until then, the “gay blood ban” remains in place—and no patronizing pat on every virginal gay man’s head changes that.
Idaho legislation banning transgender people from changing the sex listed on their birth certificates despite a federal court ruling declaring such a law unconstitutional headed to the governor’s desk on Tuesday, bringing the state closer to becoming one of less than a handful of states with such a restriction.
The Senate voted 27-6 to approve the measure that was overwhelmingly passed in the House last month.
A federal judge in March 2018 ruled that Idaho’s law barring transgender people from making the birth certificate change violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The judge scrapped the ban and warned against new rules.
Some senators who backed the bill said the federal court was wrong and were willing to risk an expensive lawsuit that the Idaho attorney general’s office says could cost $1 million.
“I think we all understand what the costs and what the risks are in making the decision to go forward,” said Republican Sen. Jim Rice.
Backers said the legislation is needed because it’s important that Idaho has accurate birth records.
Democratic Sen. Michelle Stennett said that only a tiny percentage of the population seeks to change the sex listed on their birth certificate.
“Honestly, for such a small part of the population we are going to be so punitive,” she said.
If it’s signed into law by Republican Gov. Brad Little, it will almost certainly be challenged in court.
“Idaho lawmakers might as well try to tear down the federal courthouse if they have this much contempt for the rule of law,” Lambda Legal Counsel Peter Renn, a member of the legal team that obtained the court ruling in 2018, said in a statement immediately after the Senate vote.
Ohio and Tennessee are the only other states in the country where transgender people cannot change their birth certificates, Lambda Legal says.
In Idaho, it’s another effort by the conservative state to target the population.
A separate measure banning transgender women from competing in women’s sports despite warnings that such a law is unconstitutional passed the Senate Monday and is a few technical procedures away from also heading to the governor’s desk.
That measure would apply to all sports teams sponsored by public schools, colleges and universities. A girls’ or women’s team would not be open to transgender students who identify as female.
The Department of Health and Human Services plans to unlawfully stop enforcing nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ Americans, a lawsuit filed Thursday claims.
The suit centers on a “notice of nonenforcement” and a proposed rule issued by the Trump administration in November that would reverse a 2016 Obama-era rule prohibiting discrimination in HHS-funded grant programs and permit federally funded organizations to turn people away claiming conflicts with religious beliefs. The suit was filed by civil rights group Lambda Legal and nonprofit Democracy Forward on behalf of three LGBTQ advocacy groups — True Colors United, SAGE and Family Equality.
“In conflict with HHS’s established rules and policy, Defendants have engaged in systematic efforts to undermine the civil rights of, and non-discrimination protections for, LGBTQ people in the United States,” the suit states. “HHS’s decision to walk away entirely from enforcing the still-valid 2016 Grants Rule is a glaring example.”
According to the lawsuit, there’s about $500 billion in HHS grant money at stake. This is the amount the department administers to fund organizations across the country who provide a variety of services, including child placement, homeless shelters and elder care.
The HHS Office of Public Affairs told NBC News it would “not comment on pending litigation.” However, in its November statement regarding the notice of nonenforcement, the department said it is “committed to fully enforcing the civil rights laws passed by Congress” and stated that this proposal would “better align” HHS grant regulations with “federal statutes, eliminating regulatory burden, including burden on the free exercise of religion.”
Civil rights advocates say the November measure is another example of the Trump administration prioritizing “religious freedom” at the expense of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Americans. In fact, a report issued in November by the bipartisan U.S. Commission on Civil Rights claimed the administration is “undoing decades of civil and human rights progress” — especially when it comes to LGBTQ issues.
‘Heightened vulnerability’
Puneet Cheema, a Lambda Legal attorney working on the suit, said this HHS policy reversal will affect the most vulnerable within the LGBTQ community, notably youth and older adults. The current coronavirus pandemic, she added, will only make the impact more devastating.
“Youth who are experiencing homelessness, seniors who have difficulties accessing health care generally,” she said, “they may have heightened need for care and heightened vulnerability in this epidemic.”
LGBTQ youth are overrepresented in the foster care system, and they are 120 percent more likely to experience homelessness, according to a study from Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. Foster care and shelters are two essential services often funded by HHS grants.
“LGBTQ youth already more vulnerable because of discrimination,” Cheema said. “They have a right to get services that are free of discrimination. They have a right to shelter without being subject to verbal harassment. They have a right to loving and affirming families, all of which is at risk.”
“Defendants have engaged in systematic efforts to undermine the civil rights of, and non-discrimination protections for, LGBTQ people in the United States.”
Dylan Waguespack is the public policy and external affairs director at True Colors United, a national organization assisting LGBTQ homeless youth. Waguespack told NBC News that when HHS announced it would no longer enforce the nondiscrimination rule, the organization decided to take action by joining Thursday’s lawsuit.
“We immediately recognized it could cause a great deal of harm to young people,” he said, noting the department’s proposed rule could make a young person less willing to report discrimination or prompt them to leave a shelter altogether.
Echoing Cheema, he also noted the particularly perilous situation these vulnerable young people are in amid the current public health crisis.
“Making young people less likely to come inside is particularly dangerous right now when we are looking at this pandemic and expecting an increase in young people coming in to use these services because of home situations becoming more and more unstable and schools and campuses shutting down,” he said.
HHS’s decision may also negatively affect older LGBTQ adults, many of whom rely on services funded by the department, such as meal delivery or transportation.
“LGBTQ older adults are already more economically insecure because of the lifetime of discrimination they have experienced,” Cheema explained. “They have a right to age with dignity and HHS is denying them that.”
Cheema said HHS’s November nonenforcement notice and rule proposal is yet “another example of the Trump administration turning its back on LGBTQ people” and “flouting the rule of law.”
Many local businesses and government agencies are closing because county and state officials have limited business operations and daily public activities to curb the spread of coronavirus.
There are, however, some establishments still open and providing critical services amid the county’s unprecedented three-week shelter-in-place order intended limit wider outbreak of the coronavirus.
Here is list of what remains open and what was known (by late Tuesday) to be closed in Sonoma County:
Department of Motor Vehicles offices; the state agency is asking law enforcement to “exercise discretion” for the next 60 days in ticketing drivers with license and vehicle registrations that expire this week. The agency also is asking residents to go to its website before coming into a local branch to determine if services they want can be completed online.
Pet stores, with limited hours
Veterinary offices
State, county and city parks (but not campgrounds or visitor centers)
Closed:
Schools and universities
Bars, taprooms, winery tasting rooms
Restaurants not providing takeout or delivery
Libraries
Coffee shops
Theaters
Casinos
Government agencies:
Healdsburg: The city closed city hall, its community center and senior center through April 3. Activities such as law enforcement, fire services, electric services, water and wastewater service, building inspections and public communications continue to operate.
Petaluma: Only essential community services continue; nonessential services suspended through April 6.
Santa Rosa: All nonessential city services, such as pothole filling and regular city permit processing, have been suspended until April 5. Some small businesses in the city are closed or closing after the decision to stop nonessential services.
Sebastopol: Only essential services are available. Nonessential services suspended through April 5.
Sonoma County Regional Parks: The agency suspended guided activities and large gatherings and closed its indoor sites through April 3.
Sonoma County: Emergency law enforcement and fire services, water and wastewater treatment, emergency road repairs and transit services are continuing. Nonessential services are closed through April 5.
Windsor: Nonessential city services to close through April 5. Town hall, the community center, the senior recreation center and Huerta Gym are closed. Parks are open.
Sonoma County public health officials sounded a new alarm Tuesday over the expanding coronavirus outbreak and issued a singular message to residents: Unless absolutely necessary, stay at home.
That’s the central point of the shelter-in-place order issued Tuesday by Sonoma County Interim Public Health Officer Sundari Mase.
The mandate is designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus by restricting person-to-person interactions except where necessary to engage in essential activities or provide critical public, business and government services.
The order took effect at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday and remains in effect through April 7. It’s similar to those enacted Monday in six other Bay Area counties.
It bans nonessential travel and nonessential gatherings of any size, and requires businesses and governments to cease non-essential operations at physical locations.
“It’s not meant to punish people,” county spokeswoman Jennifer Larocque said. “It’s meant to keep them safe.”
So go buy groceries when you need to stock your cupboards. Fill your vehicle’s gas tank. Head out for a hike or to pick up some dog food, or take a loved one to the dentist, if it’s needed.
What is meant by “essential” activities?
This the stuff of daily life that keeps people fed, housed and getting through the day safely.
For public services, its the police, firefighters and emergency dispatchers, plus the work of those who run the wastewater treatment plant, waste collectors, people in the telecommunications industry; even those working construction on public works projects or affordable housing.
On a personal level, it’s the grocery shopping, caretaking and core errands. People can leave home to shop for food, cleaning supplies and personal care products. They can do their laundry or ship packages at the post office or through some other shipping service, or pick up supplies they need to work from home.
What businesses are considered essential?
Provision of health care tops the list, including physical and mental health care providers, dentists, biotechnology companies and even veterinary clinics. It also includes cannabis dispensaries providing products for medicinal use, though they can only be offered for delivery or curbside pickup.
Banks and financial institutions, hardware stores, plumbers, electricians, exterminators and others who maintain the safety, sanitation and operations of households are also on the list.
Food producers — those in farming, fishing, food processing and dairies — and in Sonoma County — wineries and breweries are included.
Businesses that provide food, shelter and social services, including senior, adult- and childcare with certain provisions, as well as those serving low-income, homeless and disadvantaged people are called out, as are newspapers, television, radio and other media services. The order also includes gas stations and auto-supply, auto repair, and related facilities.
Legal and accounting services that support essential activities and taxis and transit services can continue to operate.
What about restaurants?
As it stands now, restaurants and other food providers can only sell food for takeout, drive-thru or delivery. Even schools that provide meals to children eligible for free and reduced lunches must ensure that students who receive take-away meals consume them off-site. Food banks are allowed to operate, as well.
Business owners can do what they need to do to support employees working from home, ensure security and the maintenance of equipment and inventory, handle payroll and worker benefits and otherwise do the minimum necessary to preserve the general function of their assets, while maintaining social distancing and precautions like washing hands.
Virtually all of Sonoma County’s schools are on spring break but will be transitioning to home learning. Anyone needed to report to campus to support remote instruction can do so, as educational institutions are exempted from the shutdown.
Caring for a pet?
They’re part of the family, so if they need pet care or supplies, it’s essential. It’s also OK to go out to care for someone else’s pet, if that’s an agreement you made. Veterinary care is covered under the order’s health care provisions.
Trying to stay fit?
Outdoor activity is explicitly identified in the order as an “essential” undertaking — as long as you can walk, hike, run or cycle at a distance of 6 feet from anyone else. You’re OK to travel to the coast or the country to embark on you adventure, as well. However, indoor gyms and other exercise facilities will remain closed to avoid virus transmission.
Can I be arrested?
Defying the order is a misdemeanor violation of the California Health and Safety Code, punishable by fine, imprisonment, or both, as it is considered “an imminent threat to public health.”
But while the order calls on the Sonoma County Sheriff and all local police chiefs to ensure compliance with it, enforcement is likely to be “compassionate,” given the order’s precedent-setting nature, Mase said.
“We’ve never experienced this before, so we need to see where this goes,” she said.
You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 707-521-5249 or [email protected]. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.
Six Bay Area counties are expected to announce a “shelter in place” order for all residents on Monday, directing everyone to stay inside their homes and away from others as much as possible for the next three weeks as public health officials desperately try to curb the rapid spread of coronavirus across the region.
County authorities were expected to announce the move at 1 p.m. and gave a draft of the order to media outlets to prepare. The Chronicle is reporting the story after a television station published the news early.
The directive begins at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday and involves San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Marin, Contra Costa and Alameda counties — a combined population of more than 6.7 million. It is to stay in place until at least April 7.