Stronger Houston: The COVID-19 crisis and its impact on Houston’s transgender community
Updated:
Tags:
“I lost my mind,” Porter said.
She was coping with the deaths of three loved ones and the end of her marriage, while financially supporting her family and facing eviction, all during a pandemic.
The mounting pressure of it all pushed Porter past her breaking point.
“I had to go to a psychiatric unit. I had to check out of life. It was too much,” Porter said.
Whether it’s finding help, employment, adequate housing, health or mental care, the pandemic has only exacerbated the challenges and inequities the transgender community had to face before COVID-19.
Still a target
JAMES RUSSELL | Contributing Writer
james.journo@gmail.com
Even in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 470,000 people in the U.S., legislators across the country are
still filing bills targeting LGBTQQ people. That was the takeaway from a recent Human Rights Campaign press call lead by Cathryn Oakley, state legislative director for the LGBTQ advocacy organization.
The three most common types of bills now winnow in on creating barriers for transgender people participating in sports, those seeking medical care and those obtaining identity documents.
“These anti-transgender attacks are just the latest assaults on the LGBTQ community. These political extremists are taking painstaking efforts. They should focus on educating children, not solutions to non-existent problems,” Oakley said.