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Sex during COVID-19
SF lags on census
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Folsom fair goes virtual
Mrs. America
The
www.ebar.com
Serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
Vol. 50 • No. 18 • April 30-May 6, 2020
Forum looks at COVID-19 and people with HIV by Liz Highleyman
Courtesy Horizons Foundation
Horizons Foundation President Roger Doughty said that many Bay Area LGBT nonprofits are struggling amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Horizons gives over $400K in COVID-19 grants by John Ferrannini
H
orizons Foundation announced April 23 that it is giving almost half a million dollars in grants to 53 Bay Area LGBT groups, just as nonprofits sounded the alarm about the financial fallout from the novel coronavirus outbreak. As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported online, 137 LGBT-serving nonprofits co-signed a letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom April 22 asking him to direct federal relief money made available by the CARES Act to them. Horizons’ grants are being provided by its COVID-19 Response Emergency Fund. The fund was started last month, and the $440,000 in grants announced Thursday was described as the “first round” in a news release. Some $200,000 came from the funds Horizons already had, and further donations totaling $150,000 came from outside contributors. The emergency fund is accepting donations for future grants. Roger Doughty, a gay man who is the longtime president of Horizons, spoke with the B.A.R. via phone April 23. He compared the effects of the coronavirus outbreak to having “a bomb dropped.” “It’s not just (dropped) on our community – it’s everywhere,” Doughty said. “We are all trying to do what we can do to deal with the new reality. “The community is going into the same crisis as the rest of society and in all my years in the movement – 30 years – I’ve never seen so much of an explosion of need, combined with economic damage. The velocity of the change has been absolutely astonishing and it’s hurting organizations very, very hard.” Doughty said that the genesis of the fund was in late March, when $200,000 was appropriated to it following a decision by Horizons’ board of directors. “We then used that to solicit funds from our other donors,” Doughty said. Horizons fielded over 80 applications beginning in early April, according to Doughty and the release, and the grants range from between See page 7 >>
P
eople living with HIV in San Francisco are not contracting the new coronavirus or developing severe COVID-19 more than HIV-negative people, speakers said at an April 23 virtual town hall hosted by the Getting to Zero Consortium and Ward 86, the HIV clinic at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. “We haven’t seen people with HIV coming into the hospital more or having more severe disease at all,” said Ward 86 medical director Dr. Monica Gandhi. “But with the higher rates of poverty and marginal housing among our patients, there’s a real concern about transmission.” Gandhi said that at the time of her talk, approximately 12,600 coronavirus test results had been reported citywide, about 1,300 of which were positive, and 21 residents had died (now up to 23). Latinos comprise the most cases by far, at 29%, but Asians account for more than half of all deaths. Only one person under age 60 has died so far. These rates are low compared with harder-hit areas like Los Angeles, New Orleans, and New York City. Experts think this is
Screengrab via Liz Highleyman
Ward 86 deputy clinic director Mary Lawrence-Hicks, left, and nurse manager Jon Oskarsson discussed coronavirus and HIV/AIDS during a virtual town hall.
largely thanks to the city’s early physical distancing efforts, but the low case number also reflects limited testing. Efforts are now underway to test more of
the city’s population regardless of symptoms, starting with part of the Mission district, which has many Latino residents. This will See page 7 >>
Released trans asylum seeker talks to B.A.R.
by John Ferrannini
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trans asylum seeker who was released April 23 from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in Texas is back in California and told the Bay Area Reporter that she’s experiencing a range of feelings. The San Francisco Public Defender’s office, which is representing Lexis Hernandez Avilez, announced April 24 that she had been released after posting a $10,000 bond. Avilez was suddenly moved to a facility in Texas from California on Christmas Day. Avilez, 41, is now at home in Monterey County, where she participated in a phone interview with the B.A.R. last Friday. She flew from Texas to California that day. “I’m happy, sad, all of the above right now,” Avilez said. “I’m happy that I am Lexis Hernandez Avilez, I’m transgender and I’m not scared no more. I want to share my story with all the transgender women and transgender men; all the LGBT people.” Avilez’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Hector Vega, filed a habeas petition on April 8. A judge ruled that while Avilez had been convicted in a gang-related assault in 2005, there wasn’t evidence to show this would be indicative of Avilez’s future behavior upon release. “The judge focused on the fact that it has
Courtesy SF Public Defender’s office
Lexis Hernandez Avilez held the Pride and trans flags after she was released from an ICE detention facility in Texas.
been 15 years since her last criminal action,” Vega told the B.A.R. last week. “The judge acknowledged everything that has changed since; she pointed to the completion of rehabilitative programs while in detention, and that her focus today is to stay well and healthy as she continues
her gender confirmation treatment.” “She acknowledged all the family support [Avilez] has and wished her good luck with the rest of her case,” Vega added. See page 7 >>
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