The Role of Social Infrastructures for Trans* People During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This chapter argues that, in the UK, pre-existing conditions, such as austerity cuts to public services, have disproportionately affected trans* people, particularly through the loss of social infrastructure. It draws on the concept of social infrastructure to outline the ways in which the urban inequities of transgender and gender non-conforming people have changed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also situates trans* people's urban inequities against the backdrop of UK austerity cuts that have undermined social infrastructures vital to LGBTQ communities. The chapter argues that pre-existing conditions caused trans* people to become disproportionately affected by the pandemic in terms of social infrastructures of health, community, and housing. It explains how social relations and invisible labor that underlie social infrastructures broke down during the onset of the pandemic, placing trans* people in a particularly precarious position.