{"id":3471,"date":"2020-05-17T15:34:56","date_gmt":"2020-05-17T15:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/pandemicbook\/?page_id=3471"},"modified":"2022-03-18T13:31:40","modified_gmt":"2022-03-18T13:31:40","slug":"05-17","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/pandemicbook\/05-17\/","title":{"rendered":"05-17"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Sunday, May 17<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUS Cases 1.5 million
US Deaths 92,990<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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-May 15: The House passes<\/a> <\/span>$3 trillion coronavirus relief package. President Trump fires<\/a> <\/span>State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, saying the 2013 Obama appointee “no longer” has his “fullest confidence.”<\/p>

-May 16: Protesters gather<\/a> <\/span>outside the Glynn County courthouse in Georgia to demand the resignation of Jackie Johnson, the Brunswick Judicial Circuit district attorney, and George Barnhill, the Waycross circuit district attorney for their roles in the investigation into the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man who was shot while out jogging.\u00a0<\/p>

-May 17: Governors continue to reopen<\/a> <\/span>as deaths pass 90,000.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tFrom the Cutting Room Floor...\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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When Dr. Anthony\u00a0Fauci\u00a0is on screen, people listen.\u00a0Unfortunately, we haven\u2019t seen him on screen for some time, which is according to plan, apparently.\u00a0He last appeared on\u00a0Chris\u00a0Cuomo\u2019s\u00a0Prime Time<\/em> a couple of weeks ago. Something similar happened in March\u2014basically any time he begins to take too much attention off the president. The thing is, a lot of Americans find Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx to be the only trustworthy figures in the room. We get nervous when the president is the only one allowed to talk, swarms of misinformation buzzing out from his mouth. With the actual medical people sidelined, it seems like New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is the only person worth watching, which is leading to some breathless \u201cCuomo for president\u201d language. But still, competence and compassion matters.<\/span><\/p>

Arguments over\u00a0\u201copening\u201d\u00a0are only getting louder.\u00a0With the\u00a0major healthcare voices pushed to the margins\u00a0for the moment, that dichotomy of public health or\u00a0personal\u00a0liberty\u2014which often means \u2018liberty to get back to work\u00a0in an office\u00a0to make money to\u00a0buy things to\u00a0pay sales tax\u2019\u2014flows from\u00a0corporations and a lot of governors\u00a0on down.\u00a0People are still tentative, though.\u00a0Infection rates\u00a0in parts of the country not hit in that initial\u00a0blast on New York and New Jersey\u00a0don\u2019t seem to be falling much. Those numbers, in fact,\u00a0might\u00a0actually be\u00a0rising.\u00a0There\u2019s\u00a0another\u00a0important thing we just discovered. Some jobs pay so badly that people are making\u00a0more<\u00a0money\u00a0while unemployed than they do when employed.\u00a0This really hacks certain politicians off. [read_more id=”1″ more=”Read more” less=”Read less”]<\/span><\/p>

Drowned out of these \u201copening\u201d conversations are voices of marginalized people stuck in difficult situations who desperately want the pandemic to be enough under control that they can leave. \u201cI’m a closeted Lesbian that is back in a homophobic house because of COVID-19,\u201d writes one. It\u2019s an anonymous cry for help Avery Smith shared with me. There are so many like it from all over our shutdown nation, and they provide an entirely different angle on the reopening debate.<\/span><\/p>

Avery\u00a0Smith\u00a0hosts a\u00a0highly respected\u00a0podcast\u00a0\u201cBlessed are the Binary Breakers<\/a>\u201d and blog\u00a0Queerly Christian<\/em> highlighting\u00a0the struggles and triumphs faced by the LGBTQA+\u00a0and gender nonconforming community. With a theology degree, Avery especially wants to\u00a0create a safe space where\u00a0those who are younger and\u00a0are \u201cstill figuring themselves out\u201d\u2014at an earlier stage in their journey, perhaps\u2014can be themselves, can\u00a0find\u00a0comfort, camaraderie, support, wisdom.\u00a0Avery\u2019s\u00a0spaces are there\u00a0for hard\u00a0questions, \u201canything from \u2018how do you know I\u2019m not going to Hell?\u2019 to\u00a0\u2018I\u2019m closeted; I\u2019m stuck at home with my parents; what do I do?\u2019\u2014this is a huge one right now,\u201d\u00a0Avery points out.<\/span><\/p>

For many\u00a0younger\u00a0LGBTQA+\u00a0and gender nonconforming\u00a0people,\u00a0these stay-at-home orders have\u00a0become\u00a0nightmarish for reasons that have nothing to do with the economic ones\u00a0trumpeted\u00a0by\u00a0some governors and corporations.\u00a0\u201cSay you\u2019re at college, living away from the people who are maybe even hostile toward you,\u201d Avery\u2019s\u00a0voice drops, \u201cThere\u2019s a pandemic. You\u2019re sent home. You\u2019re stuck now\u2014you\u2019re\u00a0stuck<\/em>.\u00a0You\u2019re in this situation\u00a0and maybe you\u2019re\u00a0tip-toeing\u00a0because you\u2019re afraid they\u2019ll find out,\u00a0or maybe they do know and they\u2019re making your life\u00a0difficult\u00a0because there\u2019s\u00a0a lot of passive aggression\u00a0and all of that\u2014or\u00a0less<\/em>\u00a0passive<\/em>\u00a0aggression.\u00a0You don\u2019t have your ordinary connections.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

I wondered\u00a0if social media made things easier now. Avery nodded, but\u00a0helped me to see\u00a0that\u00a0app-based community isn\u2019t enough.\u00a0\u201cImagine\u00a0you\u2019re a high schooler,\u00a0and you\u00a0go to\u00a0your GSA club\u2014so you have\u00a0a little respite\u00a0from having no one supporting you. You don\u2019t have that anymore.\u00a0A lot of clubs just aren\u2019t meeting in any form.\u201d\u00a0Avery then shares another\u00a0comment\u00a0from the\u00a0Queerly Christian<\/em> blog:<\/span><\/p>

it\u2019s been really hard to live closeted at home and bc of the pandemic i have nowhere to go but home or work for the most part, and not a lot of hope to move out anytime soon. i think this is an issue a lot of closeted people are having, and those who deal with abuse at home because of being lgbtq+ have had it so much worse. especially minors. i\u2019ve seen a definite uptick in that in my friend groups.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>

\u201cSo,\u00a0are you hearing a lot of despair\u00a0like this\u00a0out there?\u201d I ask. \u201cIs there any hope?\u201d<\/span><\/p>

\u201cAt the start of this, I was getting a lot of messages from people that were more on the despairing side, including people asking, \u2018Is this the end of the world?\u2019 I\u2019m not going to play the game where you predict the end of the world based on cryptic stuff in the Bible. But I don\u2019t get as much of that now. I think it\u2019s contextual.\u201d Avery pointed me toward \u201cQueer Church AR,\u201d a success story from a \u201cwhite bisexual woman who was the pastor of a white-majority church\u201d who was fired from her congregation in the middle of this pandemic. It has a growing online following.<\/span><\/p>

Still, there\u2019s no denying that\u00a0major barriers now stand in the way\u00a0of\u00a0safe\u00a0community and connection.\u00a0\u201cPride events are cancelled. Dating or getting together with friends is less safe. LGBT\/queer spaces like bars or bookshops are\/were closed. For those of us who are students,\u00a0school years in spring were cut short, which meant for some that bullying was cut short but for others that the one space where they had friends that supported them was taken away.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cI have a friend group\u00a0\u2026\u00a0that consists almost completely of trans + autistic and\/or otherwise disabled young adults. This group of friends meets every Sunday evening at the house four of them rent to make and eat a meal, play games, and just chat and have fun together. They have not been able to hold these weekly dinners since February. And for some of the group, that was the one time all week they could be themselves: wear\u00a0the clothes they like to wear, talk about trans and autistic stuff with people who Get It, and\/or not have to worry about getting misgendered nonstop.\u00a0So,\u00a0it really sucks that the dinners can\u2019t take place. A lot of my friends are experiencing some bad drops in mental health because of that loss of community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

Later, Avery emailed to emphasize\u00a0a few points we missed during our conversation.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cSince LGBTQA+ persons belong to every other identity group possible, from the most privileged ones (white people, rich people, etc.) to the most marginalized (BIPOC, disabled persons, poor and homeless persons, etc.), any consequences of pandemic on other identity groups\u00a0is\u00a0also a consequence for the LGBTQA+ community\u2014but often with a twist.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cFor instance, say a\u00a0cishet\u00a0person becomes homeless because of pandemic, and so does a transgender person. The\u00a0cishet\u00a0person might be able to find a homeless shelter to stay in; meanwhile, the transgender person may not be able to find a shelter that will take them in or that will guarantee their safety from transphobic violence.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cAnother example: say a trans person ends up in the hospital for COVID. They may face transphobic remarks from hospital staff, misgendering, or even outright refusal to treat. I know of many trans persons (and other LGBT persons) who will not go to the hospital unless they’re literally on death’s door because they’ve been traumatized by health providers in the past.\u201d [\/read_more]<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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“New photos of Breonna Taylor’s apartment after deadly police search released,” CBS News (May 15, 2020), https:\/\/youtu.be\/jbAgpMN_Hyo<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Cenk Uygur and Michael Shure, “‘Coronavirus Karen’ Probably Regrets Not Wearing A Face Mask,” The Young Turks (May 15, 2020), https:\/\/youtu.be\/39vkedXrgho<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Mad Liberals, “Independence Day,” (April 15, 2020),\u00a0https:\/\/youtu.be\/PBxoldk4V74. [Trump would retweet this on May 16, 2020:\u00a0https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/administration\/498154-trump-tweets-clip-of-independence-day-with-himself-allies-edited-in<\/a>]<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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*If the pdf thumbnails are not appearing, please reload the page.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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