A transgender health outreach worker in Panama has been fined for venturing out on the “wrong day” under the government’s new gender-based quarantine rules, according to Human Rights Watch.
Bárbara Delgado was distributing food near her home last week when she was detained by police for going out on a day designated for women.
Under the country’s quarantine rules to stop the spread of COVID-19, women may only venture out on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays are reserved for men, and no one can go out on Sundays.
Because Panama only recognizes a transgender person’s gender identity if they have undergone gender confirmation surgery, Delgado’s identity documents display her assigned sex at birth. That means authorities were permitted to detain Delgado because they believed that she was violating the quarantine order.
Delgado was also accused of breaking rules that determine specific times when people of a certain gender are permitted to leave their homes.
Because Delgado had not yet been issued a transit pass by the clinic where she worked when the quarantine rules went into effect, police were allowed to stop her and three others for venturing out at a non-designated time, reports CBS News.
Police ultimately sent home the other three volunteers, but took Delgado into custody. She was eventually released after paying a $50 fine.
“She was treated differently from the other people that were out,” Cristian González Cabrera, an LGBT researcher at Human Rights Watch, told CBS News.
“She was brought to the police station, and she was there for three hours, where she also suffered more discrimination at the hands of the justice of the peace, because he also accused her of not being a woman,” González Cabrera added. “That shows how trans people are treated differently in Panama in the context of this gender-based quarantine.”
González Cabrera said there have been at least three other cases where transgender people were discriminated against for allegedly violating the quarantine’s gender rules.
Panama hasn’t issued any guidance for what transgender or nonbinary people should do in the context of the quarantine, but González Cabrera says without those guidelines, transgender people face a great deal of uncertainty.
“Bárbara went out on the day for women even though her ID says male. The other transgender people actually went out on the day dictated by their ID and they also suffered discrimination,” he said. “So you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t in this context.”
A new survey finds that many LGBTQ Americans -- especially transgender and nonbinary people -- have altered their lives in response to a wave of anti-LGBTQ laws and rhetoric sweeping the country, with many reporting serious harm to their mental health and overall wellbeing.
Conducted from May 29 to June 13 by NORC’s AmeriSpeak panel for the Movement Advancement Project, the online survey polled 1,055 LGBTQ adults nationwide, including 111 who identified as transgender or nonbinary.
Operated by NORC at the University of Chicago, AmeriSpeak is a probability-based panel designed to reflect the U.S. household population. Randomly selected households are contacted through mail, email, phone, or in-person interviews.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has begun enforcing a new rule requiring airlines to ignore any "X" gender markers on passports and instead enter either "M" or "F" for all passengers.
Announced in a July 7 bulletin, CBP said the rule stems from an earlier executive order by former President Donald Trump aimed at eliminating recognition of transgender identities. The directive took effect on July 14, with airlines given 90 days to comply before full enforcement.
Now in effect, the rule has sparked widespread concern over how it will be implemented in practice.
Reports that the person who fatally shot conservative activist Charlie Kirk had left behind bullet casings engraved with phrases espousing "transgender ideology" have been debunked.
The rumor spread quickly after conservative commentator Steven Crowder posted to X on the morning of September 11 -- the day after the shooting -- claiming he had received an email from a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives officer describing such engravings.
Crowder shared what he said was an email from an ATF officer claiming investigators had recovered the weapon used in Kirk's killing, with one spent cartridge in the chamber and three rounds still in the magazine. The email further alleged the cartridges were engraved with "transgender and anti-fascist ideology."
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