Updated on Saturday, May 16
‘The Latest News’ is a weekly thread where we update our readers on events that affect our communities.
Latinos are disproportionately affected by Covid-19 in several counties
Latinos and Hispanic people in Clark County, where Las Vegas is located, make up 27 percent of Covid-19 cases, making them the worst-hit population in that area. Around Baltimore, Maryland and Austin, Texas, Latinos also make up a disproportionate number of Covid-19 diagnosis and deaths.
More than half of the United States’ approximately 10.7 million undocumented immigrants are from Latin America and many do not qualify for government pandemic assistance. This may partially explain why the essential workforce is disproportionately made up of Latinx immigrants, who must continue showing up to work and exposing themselves to getting sick.
Belly Mujinga, a UK railway worker, died after someone with Covid-19 spat on her
Belly Mujinga, a UK railway worker, died after someone spat on her and her colleague in London’s Victoria station. The assailant told the workers that he had the novel coronavirus and coughed and spat on them. Immediately after the incident, Mujinga and her colleague asked to work behind a protective barrier but were asked to keep working out on the concourse without personal protective equipment, according to CNN.
Mujinga had underlying conditions and was taken to the hospital on April 2 after she started to develop severe symptoms. She died two days later, on April 5, leaving behind her husband and an 11 year-old daughter.
More LGBTQ People of Color Are Unemployed Because of the Pandemic
A poll by the Human Right Campaign and PSB found that 17 percent of LGBTQ Americans lost their jobs because of Covid-19, compared to 13 percent of the general population. More starkly, 23 percent of the LGBTQ people of color who were surveyed reported being unemployed, compared to 14 percent of their white LGBTQ counterparts.
The national unemployment rate currently stands at around 14 percent.
Aimee Stephens, trans woman at the center of an anti-discrimination Supreme Court case, died of kidney disease
Aimee Stephens, the trans woman who brought an anti-discrimination lawsuit to the Supreme Court case last year, died at 59 of a kidney disease. In the past year, she had become a trailblazer for the trans community after she filed a discrimination lawsuit that could make it illegal for anyone to get fired for being transgender.
In 2013, Stephens was fired from the funeral home where she worked for six years. Shortly before her firing, she has written a letter to her colleagues explaining her transition. Her boss, Thomas Rost, quickly fired her, saying he would not let her come to work in female business attire. Last year, a lower court ruled in Stephens’ favor and the case is pending for the Supreme Court. Her death will not change the status of her case.
Stephens died in her Detroit home in the presence of her wife, Donna Stephens.
South Korea’s is focusing on LGBTQ+ club-goers to trace new coronavirus outbreak
After weeks of few confirmed coronavirus cases, South Korea recently reported a cluster of approximately eighty infections in Seoul. Most new cases were traced back to the city’s Itaewon district, a neighborhood known for its gay nightlife.
The fact that many new infections occurred in LGBTQ spaces has made South Korea’s previously successful method of contact tracing extremely complicated. With a large Christian population, homosexuality in South Korea is still largely taboo and tracing men who were in LGBTQ clubs that night may inadvertently “out” them. Fear of stigma or getting fired from their jobs has likely prevented others from coming forward and admitting that they were potentially exposed.
Meanwhile, Seoul’s mayor Park Won-soon promised that people’s privacy would be protected if they came forward.
“The nation is at risk,” he said.
The country’s bars and clubs have since been ordered to close again.
