By Methmalie Dissanayake

When Sri Lanka announced an Islandwide lockdown in March 2020, to curb the spread of Covid-19, Aruni* (not her real name) was alone in the small room located under the Kelani River bridge. Being a trans woman and sex worker she was living alone and far away from home. At that time, people had very little knowledge about Covid-19. However everyone feared the virus which was spreading globally and was confused as to what should be done.

So when the Government announced the lockdown for the first time, Aruni too was wondering what would happen. Sri Lanka’s lockdowns were different from the ones in other countries in the world. While in many other countries, the public was allowed to go to super markets to buy essential goods etc, Sri Lanka imposed an Islandwide curfew to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The shops were closed and the roads were deserted. The military and the police strictly controlled the movements and arrested those who violated the curfew.

“I became a prisoner in this room. I had nowhere to go. I knew if I returned to the village where my parents and siblings are, it would put them in a difficult situation. I knew I was not welcome. So I decided to stay here.”

Being trans is a difficult thing in Sri Lanka. But being a trans sex worker was even more difficult during this time. It is not that normal days are easy for us. But we managed our living somehow. When the curfew hit, our income completely stopped, she said.

“I am not a wealthy person. I barely managed to survive. Therefore, I cannot go for a sex reassignment surgery. I’m only taking hormone tablets. When the curfew was imposed, I could not get the tablets as almost all the drug stores were closed for some time. Even when they opened I did not have the money to buy enough drugs for a month. So I just bought tablets for a few days and used them up and on the other days I went without the drugs. For many weeks I went without taking the drugs I was supposed to take and it was a nightmare.”

For Aruni, the drugs she uses give her a boost to continue life more confidently.

“More like, they help me to live as the person I want to be. You feel confident and beautiful. Without taking them you feel empty. In my case, I was receiving treatment but I had to stop taking them suddenly without any medical advice. It directly affected my mental health. I lost confidence, faith and the will to live.”

Difficulties in accessing medical care

Unable to access medical care was one of the greatest difficulties the trans community had to go undergo especially during the pandemic related lockdowns. When curfew was imposed during the first wave, all the shops including pharmacies were forced to close down for some time. Those who wanted to buy drugs had to buy them online, particular through WhatsApp. The buyers had to send the drug prescription to the store’s WhatsApp number; the store packed the drugs and delivered them to our doorstep with cash on delivery payment terms.

The Government initiated a service for hospitals to deliver drugs to patients who were registered at their clinics. But it was not successfully implemented in the whole country. During the curfew, those who visited medical clinics in both Government and private hospitals were allowed to travel on clinic dates showing their medical records to the security personnel.

When Sandun* (not his real name) was passing a roadblock at Maharagama on the Kottawa Road for his medical clinic at the National Hospital in Colombo, he was stopped by security personal. When Sandun submitted his National Identity Card (NIC) and medical records, he received a hostile response from the security personal.

“The face on my NIC looks different to how I look now. My gender is listed as female on the NIC. Then one of them suddenly shouted at me saying ‘umbalatamonabeheth da?’ (Why do you’ll  need medicine?)”

Thenu Ranketh from the Wenasa Transgender Network said that many experienced shortages of certain drugs including injections in the market during the pandemic.

“Some of those who had drugs and injections had sold them in the black market for higher prices. In addition surgery appointments got postponed and some clinics were halted as well. We conducted a survey during the pandemic and many said they were mentally stressed owing to the lack of access to medical facilities,” he said.

Rejected from boardings and homes

Many trans persons who were living in boardings before the lockdown were harassed by their landlords. Others who were forced to return home were discriminated by their own families.

Sakuni* (not her real name) was a trans-sex worker. Her boarding place was a small room located in a slum area. There were several other trans sex workers in the same slum area. “When the lock-down was imposed for the first time, a gang in the area stormed into our rooms and attacked us. They accused us of spreading Covid-19 as we are sex workers. They then dragged us to the Police Station.”

However, the Police were kind to them. A high ranking Police officer spoke on behalf of Sakuni and her friends to the attackers: He explained the circumstances and warned them not to do that again. After that, the Police gave Sakuni and her friends a few packs of essential food items and let them return to their rooms. It could be said that Sakuni and her friends were extremely fortunate because what happened to some other trans persons during the lockdown was the complete opposite.

During the lockdown, many domestic violence incidents were reported.

Supuni* (not her real name) left her family when she was 16. Born as a boy, she gradually realised that it was not her gender identity. However, her choice confused her parents and family. She was harassed both physically and emotionally by her own family and they forced her to leave home and come to Colombo when she was still a teenager.

“I was scolded very often at home. I do not want to blame my parents for that. It is just society which sees me as an alien. To support my other siblings my parents had to let me go and pretend I was not a part of the family,” she said.

Difficulties in quarantine centres

According to Kaushal Ranasinghe, an advocate to LGBTQIA rights, though Covid-19 patients and close contacts of Covid-19 patients quarantined in their homes and in places they were staying in and got treatment during the last wave, the situation before that was different. If anyone was infected or was a close contact, they were sent to hospitals, intermediate care centres and quarantine centres.

At times like these, especially in quarantine centres, there were instances in which trans persons became more vulnerable as there were no facilities. The centres were designed only for males and females, he said.

Brink of poverty

“Many trans persons still find it difficult to find stable employment due to patriarchal attitudes in the society. Therefore, they tend to engage in odd jobs to meet the daily ends. However, when Covid-19 hit the country, their employment opportunities were lost and they were thrown under the bus due to poverty,” Ranasinghe said.

The Government at the beginning of the lockdowns announced that people would be granted relief packages and an allowance of Rs. 5000.

“The problem here was to get these allowances one should prove his/her identity to the authorities. Trans persons’ identity in NIC could be different now. So, this caused difficulty for them to prove identity to receive the allowances. Therefore, many trans persons hesitated to go in front of the authorities fearing harassment and mental difficulties to explain themselves,” he noted.

On the other hand, the Government made ‘family’ as the unit to provide relief packages (eg: Rs 5000 monthly allowance for one family). This left out many trans persons who do not live with their families. We also established a phone number for the trans community to share their mental health problems with us during the pandemic. We were able to identify who needed mental health assistance and provide support during the crucial time,” Ranketh said.

Difficulties in regional level

A webinar organised by Varta Trust shed a light on how transgender community in South Asia was marginalised further during the pandemic. Ranketh represented Sri Lanka at the webinar.

In Pakistan, the Government was seen addressing concerns regarding a ‘third gender’ and their survival. The question was what they meant by a third gender, Ho Chi Min Islam said.

“Since the pandemic started, a lot of people have suffered economically and it has been the same for transgender persons who are often dependent on the public for their livelihood. As crowds became dangerous, lockdowns happened and social distancing was undertaken, their livelihoods came to a halt.

A lot of transgender persons are also sex workers whose spaces were shut. As the lockdown started, I kept a watch on the social media for some time to see if something was being said about transgender persons. But I was very disappointed to see that there was a lack of discourse on the concerns of transgender persons, even from NGOs that have worked for the transgender communities since a long time,” she said.

Sexual and reproductive services were halted during the pandemic and lockdown. This impacted transgender people who were in the middle of gender transition because hormone therapy became unavailable. Sex workers also suffered because of the halting of condom distribution drives.

In Bangladesh too, the Government was speaking about supporting a third gender, Soya Sikder said.

“There is a confusion related to transgender community. The problem here is they often speak about a third gender. But what is that? Also, if transgender persons are the third gender who are the first gender and second gender? Are women the middle gender?” Soya queried.

She also expressed disappointment over the late responses from both the civil society organisations and the Government regarding the wellbeing of transgender community which is suffered due to pandemic.

“NGOs started to raise funds to support trans persons. But the Government’s response came much later and that was also limited to specific areas,” she said.

“There was distribution of rations and there were many other Government schemes. The transgender communities also raised a lot of money. Several cases were filed in the courts to make sure that ration support was available to the most marginalised. Transgender people lost housing and livelihood, and many had to move back to often abusive families. There has been a sharp increase in suicides, depression, and issues have occurred with ease of access to antiretroviral therapy for HIV treatment.

In all this, even if they were infected with the coronavirus or suffered from other medical issues, transgender people did not want to visit the health facilities because proper measures for treatment, like separate transgender wards, were not there. In addition, transgender people have even been branded as coronavirus ‘super spreaders’” Zainab Patel from India said.

Rukshana Kapali said that in Nepal, the Government gave out food and other help, but it was in very limited amounts, and one had to prove that one is poor and get a recommendation letter from the local Government. A lot of transgender people did not have citizenship cards congruent to their gender identity. So there were a lot of different hurdles for the community.

Responses from Sri Lankan authorities

Unfortunately, the legislatures who are supposed to make policies regarding the matter did not seem interested in presenting solutions for the issues faced by vulnerable and marginalised communities during the pandemic times, let alone the transgender community. They were more focused on curbing the spread of the virus at that time.

It should also be noted that this writer, as a Parliament reporter, since late 2019, the beginning of the pandemic, never heard either Ministers or MPs discuss these issues during Parliamentary sittings.

Patriarchy and colonial rules

In Sri Lanka, LGBTQIA+ community is criminalised by law for more than a century. Although this came from colonial rules, no Government took step to decriminalise them. Many claim that decriminalising them will violate the culture and spoil the society because there is a belief that they are ‘unnatural. Therefore, this matter of decriminalisation and rights for the LGBTQIA+ community has to be tackled on multiple fronts and that it cannot be limited to an exclusively legal, political, or social approach.

The common belief in Sri Lanka is that only men and women are natural while other gender minority groups are unnatural. Even then, men are considered superior to women and considered lucky according to religious beliefs. Some even consider that different gender identities are a result of mental disorders. But the truth is gender identity is not a natural thing. It is a social perspective. It should be understood that not every finger in the hand is the same. So when an issue pertaining to LGBTQIA+ community the majority think that such issues are not important or a niche issue.

When gender minorities raise their concerns and speak up, the society suppresses those claiming that there are bigger issues in the country than that. On the other hand, violence against women and LGBTQIA+ community is long tolerated in the society considering that it is a part of the male dominated culture.

Many people in the country struggle to survive and the pandemic dragged the people into severe poverty. So, rather than listen to gender minorities’ people are interested in finding daily meat to survive If we consider discrimination against LGBTQIA+ community and patriarchy people tend to consider them two mutually exclusive phenomena but they are essentially intertwined with each other, Legal Apprentice, Educator, Human rights graduate student Isurinie Mallawarachchi said.

From calling men who do not conform to patriarchal gender roles ‘faggot’ or ‘butterfly’ to forced marriages experienced mostly by gay women this has affected a spectrum of issues faced by LGBTQIA+ community.

It is interesting to note that this discrimination is coming towards the LGBTQIA+ community from the heterosexual majority and also from the community itself. Something that we forget is that LGBTQIA+ community is also a part of Sri Lanka society and they can also grow up with hegemonic patriarchal, sexist values. Therefore, as adults there are a lot of unlearning for us to do which would involve empathy and understanding that we live in a diverse society, she pointed out.

‍