Panama's gender-based lockdown and the resilience of transgender activism: An interview with Pau González of Hombres Trans Panamá.

ABSTRACT

This interview with Pau González, the co-founder of Hombres Trans Panamá (Trans Men Panama, HTP), the first trans men's organization in the country, explains how Panama's gender-based lockdown in response to the Covid-19 pandemic was a pivotal moment for the trans community. HTP was one of the national civil society organizations that spearheaded the response to the cases of anti-trans discrimination under the gendered measures, urging the government to issue guidelines that would allow trans people to circulate based on their gender identity and, later, to scrap the measure altogether. González explains how the lockdown not only exacerbated the structural inequalities that trans people in the country already experienced, but also forced them to reimagine their community and their activism.