Queer and COVID-19 Positive: Contagion, Suspicion, and Stigma

Zwalf, H; Sperring, S

Queer and COVID-19 Positive: Contagion, Suspicion, and Stigma

Zwalf, H Sperring, S

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Publisher:: University of Victoria Libraries
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Anthropologica, 2021, 63, (1)
Issue Date:: 2021-05-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Zwalf, H
dc.contributor.author	Sperring, S
dc.date.accessioned	2022-07-03T07:37:50Z
dc.date.available	2022-07-03T07:37:50Z
dc.date.issued	2021-05-01
dc.identifier.citation	Anthropologica, 2021, 63, (1)
dc.identifier.issn	0254-9212
dc.identifier.issn	2292-3586
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/158557
dc.description.abstract	<jats:p>I was one of the earliest cases of COVID‑19 in Australia. When I infected my partner, a trans man with cystic fibrosis, he was nine months pregnant. He birthed the baby during our nine days of forced isolation in hospital, making medical history as the first COVID-positive person to give birth outside of China, and the first documented non-caesarean birth in the world. Unfortunately, this was not the happy event it should have been. Our experiences while in the hospital were deeply traumatic, and since recovery we have been subjected to ongoing stigma. The post-COVID body is “othered” by medical professionals and the general public, treated with an acute suspicion reminiscent of ableism or fatphobia towards non-normative bodies. These experiences of exclusion and alienation echo the stigma directed towards the HIV-positive community during the height of the AIDS epidemic and the historical bio-medical regulation of queer bodies as second-class citizens. Drawing on theories of queer temporality, we consider the liminality of living in a “post- COVID” body—on the threshold of wellness and social contagion—as a queer time-warping experience. We call into question normative narrations of healthy/diseased bodies by considering the post-COVID body’s treatment as continually contagious.</jats:p>
dc.language	en
dc.publisher	University of Victoria Libraries
dc.relation.ispartof	Anthropologica
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.18357/anthropologica6312021356
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.title	Queer and COVID-19 Positive: Contagion, Suspicion, and Stigma
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	63
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences/Social and Political Sciences Program
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*
dc.date.updated	2022-07-03T07:37:49Z
pubs.issue	1
pubs.publication-status	Published online
pubs.volume	63
utslib.citation.issue	1

Abstract:

I was one of the earliest cases of COVID‑19 in Australia. When I infected my partner, a trans man with cystic fibrosis, he was nine months pregnant. He birthed the baby during our nine days of forced isolation in hospital, making medical history as the first COVID-positive person to give birth outside of China, and the first documented non-caesarean birth in the world. Unfortunately, this was not the happy event it should have been. Our experiences while in the hospital were deeply traumatic, and since recovery we have been subjected to ongoing stigma. The post-COVID body is “othered” by medical professionals and the general public, treated with an acute suspicion reminiscent of ableism or fatphobia towards non-normative bodies. These experiences of exclusion and alienation echo the stigma directed towards the HIV-positive community during the height of the AIDS epidemic and the historical bio-medical regulation of queer bodies as second-class citizens. Drawing on theories of queer temporality, we consider the liminality of living in a “post- COVID” body—on the threshold of wellness and social contagion—as a queer time-warping experience. We call into question normative narrations of healthy/diseased bodies by considering the post-COVID body’s treatment as continually contagious.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/158557