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Peterson Toscano
5/11/20

16 year old gender non binary teen, Xander, would’ve had a hard time dealing with Hurricane Harvey. He has no family to live with, which must be difficult as it is. He is living on the streets and connecting with other transgender and non-binary people. So at least they have a community and sense of belonging. They have asthma and no access to medical care. Yes, there are homeless shelters, but many of them are “gendered” spaces where people are housed according to the sex that appears on a government issued ID. This makes it unlikely Xander would choose to go to a homeless shelter. If they went and gender non binary was not stated on their govt ID, they’d be placed in whatever sex is listed. They don’t have access to medical care because they are homeless and there would likely be legal consequences if they tried to acquire it. 

I imagine their experience now, with Covid-19, would be much much worse. They probably feel a lot of fear. If they contracted Covid-19, they would have no access to medical care. They may not have access to their community, due to social distancing. But even if they could still be in contact, there is then a much higher risk of getting COVID-19. They have a safe home to live in and a typical mom and dad family to protect them. It is probably much harder to obtain food now that grocery stores are often empty, especially of necessities. As people around them are also growing fearful, there is probably a lot more social tension. 

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