Sexual harassment Panama’s gender-based quarantine problem for transsexuals

PANAMA CITY —
Panama’s mandatory coronavirus quarantine that divides the days people can go out for essentials by gender has led to harassment and discrimination of transsexual people, an international human rights organization said Thursday.

Human Rights Watch sent a letter to President Laurentino Cortizo asking him to protect people’s dignity. The president’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The group said it has documented cases of transsexuals being harassed whether they ran errands on days designated for their sexual identity or on days based on the gender listed on their national identification. It said harassment included being turned away at grocery stores, accosted on the street and taken to police stations.

Venus Tejada, director of the Panamanian Association of Trans People, said, “When trans women go out on the day designated for women in quarantine, we run into guards who come out to say, ‘You have to leave, you’re a man and you have a different day.’”

“We suffer a lot of derision and abuse, both trans women and men,” Tejada said.