Abstract:

Against the viral panic of global legislation and the 19 violent murders of transgender individuals (majority BIPOC) since the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a pandemic, the NY Times is reporting scientists trialling hormone therapies of oestrogen and progesterone as possible treatment for cisgender male COVID patients whose death rate is greater than that of cisgender women.

 

Through the utilisation of panic, hormone medication is pivoting from an 'irreversible decision’ (Minister for Women and Equalities, Liz Truss, 22/04/20 https://bit.ly/3moyaMH) to COVID ‘magic bullet’ (NYT 27/04/20 https://nyti.ms/3md9Kpe ) whereby acting as a startling example of the complex social death of transgender individuals enacted by biopolitical governance. Using the NY Times article I aim to consider the messy entanglement of political, social and chemical realities that are summed up in this anonymised response to the article ‘if even one transgender woman loses oestrogen access to a cis man, this means war.

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More details about the Conference can be found here: https://millenniumjournal.org/2020conference/