Blogs
Featured Image
 Shutterstock.com

April 3, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – As fear of the coronavirus continues to dominate the globe, Peru has instituted an unconventional method of limiting the number of people allowed to travel outside their homes in their communities at any given time: Men and women are allowed to leave their homes only on different days of the week. 

Law enforcement officials, however, have been instructed to “not have homophobic attitudes” in enforcing the order, and “respect” the “gender identities” of gender-confused residents.

The unusual policy raises obvious questions as to how the gender-segregated schedule applies to individuals who may be one sex but claim to “identify” as another. Does this give gender-confused individuals a free pass to travel at will?

Peru, which has so far seen more than 1,400 COVID-19 cases and at least 55 deaths, is allowing men to leave their homes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and women to  go outdoors on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, the BBC reports. Both sexes must stay indoors on Sundays. The policy is expected to remain in place at least until April 12.

“We have to get fewer people on the streets every day,” Peruvian President Martín Vizcarra said Thursday. “On Sunday everyone has to be at home. No one has justification for leaving.” He noted that stores are closed on Sundays anyway; Peru’s coronavirus lockdown had already shut down religious services.

As a practical matter, that instruction is unlikely to impact whatever effectiveness the gendered stay-at-home order is likely to have, since the order appears to be purely about the number of Peruvians on the streets rather than anything pertaining to their biological characteristics.

Still, the need to publicly signal “respect” for the LGBT community in the midst of a public-health crisis appears to be emblematic of the priorities of leaders in every country where debate rages over the LGBT agenda.

Readers can click here for LifeSiteNews’ live updates on the coronavirus and its impact all over the world.

Featured Image

Calvin Freiburger is a Wisconsin-based conservative writer and 2011 graduate of Hillsdale College. His commentary and analysis have been featured on NewsReal Blog, Live Action, and various other conservative websites. Before joining LifeSiteNews, he spent two years in Washington, DC, working to build support for the Life at Conception Act with the National Pro-Life Alliance, then worked a year and a half as assistant editor of TheFederalistPapers.org. You can follow him on Twitter @CalFreiburger, and check out his Substack: calvinfreiburger.substack.com.