An NHRI Guide on responding to COVID-19 impacts on LGBTI people
questioned during gendered lockdowns, whereby men and women were allowed to go to the
supermarket and run errands on different days.100 Trans, non-binary, and intersex people, whose
documents did not match their identity or appearance, have in some countries been routinely
harassed and subject to violence by the authorities. Undocumented LGBTI migrants have been
at heightened risk of deportation when leaving the house. Asylum and immigration policies have
become stricter, also affecting LGBTI people.101
Regional examples:
• Local police in the Philippines subjected several LGBT people to humiliation, forced
kissing, dancing, and exercise after accusing them of looking for sex when they violated
curfew regulations.102 Over a dozen LGBTQ activists were also arrested in the capital
Manila, when protesting against the controversial anti-terror law.103
• Crackdowns against migrants and refugees, including those who are LGBTI, were carried
out in Malaysia.104
10.
Organisational survival, community support, and unity
Organisations supporting LGBTI people have faced increased difficulties since the onset of the
pandemic to meet the critical needs of their communities.105 The ASEAN SOGIE Caucus has
highlighted that there have been no state-run support services available for LGBTI communities,
apart from a few ad hoc examples.106 Where state funding has been unavailable, many organisations
have struggled to support themselves and keep programmes and services running.107 Some
organisations have lost project-specific funding.
Regional examples:
• In several countries in the Asia Pacific, civil society has organised and provided safe
shelter, food, medical supplies, or rent to those most in need. For example, such support
work has been documented in Tonga, Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, China,
Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, the Philippines, and several other countries.108
15
100
OHCHR, COVID-19 and the Human Rights of LGBTI people.
101
A/75/258, para. 36 and ASEAN SOGIE Caucus, The Impact of COVID-19 on LGBTIQ+ Organizations in Southeast Asia, pp. 15-16; also Qureshi Fatima, Comment: under MCO, LGBT people face violence at home quoted in
A/75/258, para. 21; Queer Lapis, We Understand the Pain: LGBTQ Malaysians Speak Up for Migrants & Refugees.
102
Thoreson Ryan, Philippines Uses Humiliation as COVID Curfew Punishment: LGBT People Ordered to Dance and
Kiss on Video, Human Rights Watch, April 8, 2020, https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/04/08/philippines-uses-humiliation-covid-curfew-punishment.
103
Perez-Rubio Bella, 20 arrested at Pride march against anti-terror bill in Manila, Philstar Global, June 26, 2020, https://
www.philstar.com/headlines/2020/06/26/2023739/20-arrested-pride-march-against-anti-terror-bill-manila.
104
Qureshi Fatima, Comment: under MCO, LGBT people face violence at home quoted in A/75/258, para. 21; Queer
Lapis, We Understand the Pain: LGBTQ Malaysians Speak Up for Migrants & Refugees.
105
Edge Effect, BRIEFING NOTE: Impacts of COVID-19 on LGBTIQ+ people, p. 5.
106
ASEAN SOGIE Caucus, The Impact of COVID-19 on LGBTIQ+ Organizations in Southeast Asia, p. 17.
107
Ibid., p. 22.
108
See for instance Outright Action International, Vulnerability Amplified: The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on LGBTIQ
People, pp. 25, 28, 65 and Edge Effect, BRIEFING NOTE: Impacts of COVID-19 on LGBTIQ+ people; SEED Foundation Malaysia on Instagram, August 13, 2021, https://www.instagram.com/p/CSgPxJTJV-e/; Kurniawan Ulung A.,
Harrowing times: the challenges facing Yogyakarta’s trans women’s crisis center.