Trans Communities Are Demonstrating Incredible Resilience
April 29, 2020In late February, New Orleans hosted its annual Mardi Gras celebrations. As usual, there were vivid floats, crowds galore, and attendees adorned in green, purple, and yellow decorative beads. Community organizer Mariah Moore was one of those folks relishing in the experience, but little did she know that just a month later, those Crescent City streets would be all but deserted due to the novel coronavirus.
“A lot of our culture is just gone right now. We’re not able to do a lot of the things that bring us joy like our second lines and celebrating people’s lives,” she says. “It’s hard for everyone, but specifically for us because we thrive on that human contact.”
Since the clampdown of stay-at-home orders nationwide to address the global pandemic, Louisiana has become one of the hot spots for Covid-19. In fact, by early April, New Orleans had a per-capita death rate twice that of New York City. As soon as more information began trickling out about the disease, Moore sprang into action with other LGBTQ organizers to address the needs of the local residents.