[_tunic_]

Translation of a Dutch newspaper article:

In Bogotá, men and women are allowed to take to the streets every other day, transgender people can choose

By separating men and women, the mayor of the Colombian capital Bogotá hopes to maintain quarantine better. The plan looks sympathetic, but was immediately criticized.

Residents of Bogotá are only allowed to take to the streets for groceries or to go to the bank. Image EPA
The quirky capital of Colombia has its own quarantine rule from Monday. Women are only allowed out in Bogotá on the even days, men only on the odd days. Claudia López, the city's first woman mayor and the first lesbian mayor in Latin America, presented the new measures on Thursday. Trans persons have also been considered: they can choose based on the gender with which they identify themselves.


López calls the line "pico y genero" (peak and gender), a nod to "pico y placa" (peak and plate), a number plate rotation system for cars. The measure does not mean that men and women are completely free to move around on their days. They are only allowed to take to the streets for groceries or to go to the bank. The police are going to enforce strict, López promised, who goes out on the wrong day can be fined a million pesos, about 230 euros.

Colombia now has more than 2,400 registered infections and eighty corona deaths. The capital has been hit hardest with almost half of the infections. The mayor hopes to be able to maintain quarantine better by separating men and women.

López 'plan looks sympathetic, but was immediately criticized. In other parts of the country, the measure "pico y cedula" applies, people can only go out once every five days based on the last two digits of their identity card. Elsewhere, quarantine seems stricter than in Bogotá, while the capital has the most infections. The mayor defended the plan, saying that sex is easier to verify than IDs.

The transgender exception has been both ridiculed and criticized in recent days. Among male social media users, the videos of men with wigs are especially popular: on even days with, on odd days without. Transgender people warn that the well-intentioned exception poses great risks for them.

"Who is going to enforce the rule? The police. In other words, the unit that has been using violence against trans persons for years, "reporters of La Disidencia, a section on sexual diversity from the newspaper El Espectador. Transgender people are most often victims of police brutality in Bogotá, the journalists say in a video with five reasons why the rule turns out badly. Among other things, the risk of intimidation and unjustified fines, but also: "What about the people who do not identify with either sex? The measure denies their existence. "