Citation

Perez-Brumer AG, Silva-Santisteban A. AIDS Behav. 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Center for Interdisciplinary Research On Sexuality, AIDS and Society, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10461-020-02889-z

PMID

32338329

Abstract

Globally the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease has laid bare the politics and social inequities that contribute to the elevated distribution of illness and mortality among socially marginalized communities. While rapid structural responses such as curfews, physical distancing protocols, and travel restrictions have greatly curtailed the spread of COVID-19 and effectively saved lives [1], we are also witnessing the alarming emergence of policies that enact and perpetuate violence against transgender communities. Panama, Peru, and Colombia (though only in Bogota) have legislated policies to enforce physical distancing by restricting the mobility of its citizens based on binary understandings of gender and associated norms [2, 3]. Meaning that on alternating days women are allowed to access essential services and on the other days, men. What about people and communities that exist outside of hegemonic understandings of binary gender presentation and identities? As has become clear these policies are not solely logistically problematic for transgender communities to negotiate. The implementation and policing of these binary, gender-based laws have also resulted in direct violence perpetrated against transgender communities [4].

A closer assessment of the Peruvian case, quite unique in that a little over a week after implementation their gender-based policy was rescinded [5], illustrates how policies and the violence and suffering they fuel can also magnify HIV vulnerabilities impacting transgender communities. Further, the rise of transgender activism contesting these social policies alongside grassroots mobilization efforts underscore the critical role of civil society in promoting solidarity and social justice during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In efforts to contain COVID-19, the Peruvian Government enacted a policy to restrict the mobility of its citizens based on gender. As described by Peru’s President Martín Vizcarra, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday only men can go out and on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday only women. On Sunday no Peruvian citizens would be allowed to leave their homes [6]. These restrictions were widely disseminated via the Government-sponsored messaging including infographics and circulated on various social media platforms, online newspapers and television news stations, and via printed pamphlets posted in public spaces routinely patrolled to ensure physical distancing ...

Language: en