As the blustery pandemic pummeled mercilessly, the third-gender and Non-Binary community dis-proportionally condoned the socioeconomic hardships of the pandemic. Due to an atavistic bequest of discrimination in education and employment impinged with family rejection, many genderqueer individuals experience economic instability and life-threatening challenges. Relegated to the sidelines of the society, they faced delays in access to gender-affirming care and diminished access to social aid. With nominal savings and social security welfare, many have a massive challenge to deal with, the food supply scarcity.
The coronavirus infected genderqueers had to face a wide array of smirches, from getting admitted in the male ward despite being in women’s clothing with ‘nirvan’, to experiencing negative deportment from the healthcare providers as well as from fellow patients, hence traumatizing an already infected. The recommended guidelines of social distancing, hand hygiene and wearing masks are not easy for transgender individuals who live in highly dense dingy communities with poor sanitation.
In times of public health crisis, access to adequate health care is a fundamental human right, but the genderqueers’ right to healthcare is neither respected, protected nor addressed. The pandemic has pushed them back to those times when they were struggling to get heard and come to terms with their identity.
