Transgender prisoners in South Africa won an unprecedented 2019 court victory for the right to express their gender identity. But they are likely to see higher barriers to the realization of this right because of the country's COVID-19 state of disaster.
As a child, Wendi Tamariska saw orangutans roaming the tropical rainforest trees that surrounded his village in West Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. But when he returned after training to be a teacher, both the trees and orangutans were gone.
“There are many acts of violence against trans bodies—some are perpetrated by the state or allowed by its institutions,” he says. “Our bodies become the first level of resistance, and living our gender identities shows that LGBTI people are everywhere in Honduran society.”
Little was known about Simon, an emaciated and malnourished baby chimpanzee, when he was confiscated from an unknown man by police last June in Conakry, the capital of Guinea, West Africa. Ragged and with a dull tone to his fur, the 10-month-old was handed over to a local wildlife protection agency, which took him to the Chimpanzee Conservation Center, a sanctuary inside one of the region’s most important protected areas, the 1,200-square-kilometer Haut Niger National Park.
“We are not criminals. We are human beings who have rights like any person.” This is the postscript of a three-page letter written by 29 trans and gender nonconforming migrants being held at the Cibola County Correctional Center in Milan, New Mexico, about 80 miles west of Albuquerque.
Some scientists thought mountain gorillas would be extinct by now. Instead, at the end of last year, their official conservation status got a promotion—from critically endangered to endangered—for the first time, thanks to population survey results released earlier in 2018.
A bonobo in trees moving its mouth, with a binocular effect zooming in on the ape. A text overlay says, “Dedicated to the idea that people can live in harmony with one another and the natural world.”
A forest with the sun shining through trees, with a text overlay that quotes Jon Stryker and Annette Lanjouw of Arcus Foundation saying, “Destruction of nature exposes us to a panoply of diseases, and creates and exacerbates social injustice and political repression around the world.”
A razed forest.
A Learn More button that links to the Arcus Foundation 2019 Annual Report
A city street with a large crosswalk and a large crowd of people crossing it.
Text overlay with a quote: “LGBTQ communities served by our Social Justice Program live at the intersection of this long chain of degradation—environmental and social.”
A scene from a protest, people wearing face masks, waving signs and banners, drumming on a drum, dancing, shouting through a megaphone. Two signs are a sheer black color with gold trim and list several names, including Roxsana Hernandez, Claire Legato, Muhlaysia Booker, and Nina Pop. Another sign says “Black Trans Lives Matter”.
A Learn More button that links to the Arcus Foundation’s support page for LGBT Social Justice.
A woman wearing a white dress, long wavy dark brown hair, teal lipstick, plum fingernails, rectangular metal glasses sits in a chair and talks. A text overlay identifies her as Úmi Vera, Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement, United States, and quotes her saying: “There’s incredible power in the trans queer migrant community. To be dehumanized so much and not lose your hope, your sense of joy—it’s just astonishing.”
A Learn More button that links to a story: LGBTQ Migrants to the U.S. Fight to Stay Safe
A person with shoulder-length, dark brown, straight hair wearing a pink and silver fuzzy tiara and a white and purple dress with a big tulle bottom and a corset top, over a white t-shirt that says SELENA, dancing around in circles outdoors with a crowd of people sitting and standing nearby, and with the flags of Puerto Rico, Panama, and Peru hanging from wood beams in the background.
A woman with short black and gray hair wearing a black dress shirt talks. A text overlay identifies her as Indyra Mendoza, Red Lésbica Cattrachas, Honduras, and quotes her saying: “For so many years, we missed being free and open with our partners—now is the time to make it happen!.”
A Learn More button that links to a story: “I Know Who I Am, But My Country Doesn’t Recognize Me”.
A woman wearing a long-sleeved gray shirt under a jumper featuring white and pastel yellow, blue and green circles, a black head covering and a red face mask, stands in front of a church building with a sign that says: “Central Methodist Mission You are born in love by love for love”. A text overlay identifies her as Mia Lukas, SistaazHood, homeless trans women supported by Gender DynamiX, South Africa, and quotes her saying: “With their support, we feel more included in society.”
A Learn More button that links to a story: Supporting Cape Town’s Homeless Transgender Women During COVID-19
A map of the world with parts of the following regions emphasized: The United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, South America, Central America, East Africa, Southern Africa, and Asia. A text overlay that says “Arcus Foundation grantees work in 29 countries around the world, affecting millions of lives in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.”
An aerial view of a forest with area of deforested land. A text overlay that quotes Fransisca Ariantiningsih, Orangutan Information Centre, Indonesia, saying “Logging and habitat destruction force animals from the forest, making them vulnerable to trafficking.”
A woman with neck-length dark brown straight hair and a beige dress shirt talks in front of a pink flowering tree.
A Learn More button that links to the homepage of the State of the Apes publication
A baby orangutan slowly climbs a tree.
A text overlay with a quote saying “The orangutan is Indonesia’s national treasure. It takes years to rehabilitate each individual.”
An adult orangutan eats tree bark while clinging to a tree.
A text overlay with a quote saying “Our ecosystem is shared between humans and wildlife. If one single thing is gone, it affects all.”
A Learn More button that links to the Arcus Foundation’s support page for Great Apes and Gibbons Conservation.
An adult gibbon with black fur climbs a tree with a baby gibbon clinging onto the adult. Two bonobos move through trees.
A man with a beard and buzzed hair wearing a tan polo shirt with the African Wildlife Foundation logo talks. A text overlay identifies him as Raoul Mulumba Tafua, African Wildlife Foundation, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and quotes him saying, “Protecting Congo’s forest biodiversity benefits the community from the perspective of climate change, food production, and tourism.”
A woman with tightly braided dark brown hair and wearing a t-shirt with pink sleeves, a pink bow, and the faces of two people against a light blue background, talks. A text overlay identifies her as Merveille Boale Batuli, supported by Village Enterprise and African Wildlife Foundation, and quotes her saying “I’m a mother, a widow, and I have to feed my family.”
A man in a gray dress shirt and wearing a shoulder bag sits behind a table and reaches toward prescription medicine boxes and opens one to take out a smaller box and hand it to someone on the other end of the table. A text overlay quotes Jon Stryker and Annette Lanjouw of Arcus Foundation saying “Conservation without social justice is neither ethical nor possible. To achieve conservation and respect for the world’s apes, we work with the people who live alongside them.”
A Learn More button that links to the Arcus Foundation’s Annual Reporting page.
The man from the pharmacy walks down a dirt path past bushes while smiling.
Text comes up on the screen saying “Push boundaries. Make change.” Logos for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn appear on the screen.
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