Undermining Legitimacy - Abusing COVID-19 measures to target the LGBTQI community

[Cindy McMurray]

An Ethics Institute colloquy with Dr. Timothy Affonso, University of the
West Indies

The Institute for Ethics in Public Life

Wednesday, March 9, 2022

Noon over Zoom (link to be provided)

Dr. Timothy Affonso is an experienced attorney-at-law and legal educator.
He works as deputy dean of student matters in the Faculty of Law at the
University of the West Indies in Trinidad. He is also an associate tutor at
the Hugh Wooding Law School in constitutional law, law and legal systems,
and trial advocacy. His undergraduate law degree is from University of the
West Indies. Dr. Affonso also completed a master’s of law in public law and
human rights at University College London and holds a Ph.D. in public
international law and international human rights law from University of the
West Indies.

Existing challenges to the LGBTQI community have only been exacerbated
during the COVID-19 pandemic. The community regularly faces violence,
employment and housing discrimination, unequal healthcare, social
ostracism, and lack of accommodation – all largely a result of stereotypes
and in-group perceptions grounded in heterosexual norms. Worsening
treatment by state actors of persons in the LGBTQI community appears to
have been enabled by the miscarriage of COVID-19 measures. Dr. Affonso will
be in conversation with Institute director Dr. Jonathan Slater in order to
examine ways widespread implementation of COVID-19 measures has further
institutionalized discrimination against the LGBTQI community. Dr. Affonso
will also identify possible ways to protect this vulnerable group by
shedding light on current international human rights gaps in national
systems.

Ethics Institute colloquies are open to the entire SUNY Plattsburgh
community.

The Institute for Ethics in Public Life is supported by generous gifts to
the Plattsburgh College Foundation.

For further information about the Institute, contact Dr. Jonathan Slater,
director, at slaterjr at plattsburgh.edu.
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