Lorena Borjas, Mother of Queens’ Trans Latinx Community, Has Died Due to Coronavirus

Lorena Borjas — a human trafficking survivor and lifelong defender of immigrants, sex workers, and trans folks — died this morning from complications due to COVID-19, according to tweets by Bianey Garcia, Borjas’s chosen daughter. She was 60 years old.

‘People Are Dying’: Battling Coronavirus Inside a N.Y.C. Hospital | NYT News

An emergency room doctor in Elmhurst, Queens, gives a rare look inside a hospital at the center of the coronavirus pandemic. “We don’t have the tools that we need.”

The coronavirus can damage the heart, even in people with no history of heart disease, new research suggests – showing it doesn’t only affect the lungs

Trump Refused To Follow Pandemic Blueprint Because He Thought He Knew Better

The White House decided in the early stages of the pandemic that they didn’t want to play by the same rules as other countries, so they completed disregarded a 2016 National Security Council handbook that was designed to help countries mitigate and prevent pandemics from spreading. They had the instructions in their hands, but Donald Trump always believes that he knows better than anyone else. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.

US Justice Department: Don’t treat trans athletes as girls

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department is getting involved in a federal civil rights lawsuit that seeks to block transgender athletes in Connecticut from competing as girls in interscholastic sports.

Attorney General William Barr signed what is known as a statement of interest Tuesday, arguing against the policy of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, the board that oversees the state’s high school athletic competitions.

The conference allows athletes to compete as the gender with which they identify, arguing it is following a state law that requires high school students be treated according to their gender identity. It also argues the policy is in accordance with Title IX, the federal law that allows girls equal educational opportunities, including in athletics.

The Surprisingly Old Science of Living as Transgender

In the 20th century’s middle decades, the first recipient of phalloplasty surgery fought to be recognized as a man

Transgender individuals have been recently maligned as succumbing to a new “fad,” symptomatic of “leftist” modern culture. In fact, bigendered, nongendered or transgendered people have appeared throughout human history, and the practice of sexual reassignment surgery dates from the Second World War. Dillon would be one of the pioneers, making use of plastic surgery developed to treat the battle-scarred. In many ways, the technical, medical and legal hurdles were more easily surmounted then than now, but the fight for acceptance, and the right to exist in peace, was just as fraught.

Coronavirus latest: at a glance

A summary of the biggest developments in the global coronavirus outbreak

Key developments in the global coronavirus outbreak today…

THE UNEXPECTED WAY THE CORONAVIRUS IS HURTING SOME MEMBERS OF THE TRANS COMMUNITY

Shelter in place orders, widespread work closures and health authorities recommending people stay inside to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus have made isolation the new normal for millions of people. With empty toilet paper aisles and shuttered businesses, some of the effects of social distancing and other pandemic measures have been readily apparent. But the pandemic has less visible consequences unique to vulnerable communities, like the additional burden placed on transgender people.

U.S. Coronavirus Lockdown to Last 10-12 Weeks, Top Trump Official Says

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The lockdown affecting large segments of the American public to try to curb the spread of the coronavirus is likely to last 10 to 12 weeks, or until early June, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday.