Pride Month is Gone and COVID is Back!
Outbreaks in Gay Summer Spots, P-town and Fire Island, are reminding us we are living in two pandemics
Thotties,
It’s a deeply unfun Joe O The Science Hoe coming to you this week with – ahem – some more-or-less unfun news.
First, though, this week’s *very* fun episode is all about aDuLTiNg. We dish about how no one owns homes, only a few of our extended queer fam have kids, and saving for retirement seems laughable. Like 401gay, amirite? How do we heal from our trauma of failing to live up to capitalism’s expectations of us and also redefine adulthood in healthier ways? Well, listen up as we work on this together!
Listen here:
But back to unfun! Yay! As many of you know, I’ve been working on COVID-19 science advocacy since March 2020 and it has been exhausting and some of the hardest work of my life.
And this week, we got some scary news. There was a massive COVID-19 outbreak in Provincetown over bear week (rawr) and I can personally report a bunch of COVID-19 cases on Fire Island last week (womp). Cases both in New York and nationally are rising, almost certainly due to the wayyyyyy more transmissible delta variant.
NYC COVID-19 Data. Cases since 7/01/01 are rising dramatically.
Risk in the face of a pandemic is a complicated thing and depends on the hyper-local conditions where you live in addition to both biomedical interventions (like PrEP for HIV and vaccination for COVID) and social distancing and masking. Fun!
After vaccination hit more robust (if not equitable) numbers in places like New York and Los Angeles, and COVID-19 cases stayed low, I felt much more comfortable taking off my mask indoors, kissing strangers, living my best and most pleasurable life after so many months where my own health and the health of my community made that impossible.
Pandemics are exhausting. Yes, mental health may require some scale and type of social gathering. But given our current conditions here and around the US, I think the risk calculations are changing a bit. Personally, I’m avoiding large indoor gatherings once again, or maybe wearing masks if it’s important that I go. I’m going to – ugh – mask again at the gym. Outdoor hangs are best! We’re not – for me – back at a place of full-shut-down-and-only-see-your-pod for those folks like me who are fully vaccinated.
But look, this panny is still here, most of the globe isn’t yet able to get vaccinated, and simple things we do to keep ourselves safer – even after vaccination – will have a huge effect over the next couple of weeks! Watch case levels in your city or town and adjust your risk (if you can) accordingly.
And we can’t wait for politicians to make policies that care more for our health than tHe EcOnOMY. Here in New York, we’re pushing forward with full opening even as our cases and hospitalizations rise. No. Nope! We are going to have to be the ones – yet again – who care for ourselves and our loved ones and our communities!
We’ve got this, and we’ve got to! Love you all, stay well and sane, or at least as much as possible.
Xx Joe O The Science Hoe
*extra* delectable content
1. Queers fail by nature. Check out Jack Halberstam’s queer classic on how that’s not a bad thing!
2. Listening to this ep made Joe tweet a sad thing, shocklingly.
3. We love these Autostrattle infographics that describe queer adulthood based on recent surveys!
4. And this interview with Randall Kenan Prize Winner Ana-Maurine Lara, who’s a fiction writer, poet, and scholar. Vers queen, yes!
5. The prize honors writer and scholar Randall Kenan who we lost last year at only 57. His interconnected short story collection Let The Dead Bury Their Dead is a classique in the queer black canon and inspired a play by Oscar winner Tarell Alvin Mccraney.
6. This merch is basically our advice segment this episode. We love The Read and their merch is lovely and also, Break Up With Him!
7. Producer Alex’s bestie needs help to save a life, and you can donate here! Please, if you got it, it couldn’t go anyplace better!
8. Finally, wow, the new Normani with Cardi is… perfection. The Adult Gays™ are still and forever obsessed with Aaliyah and it’s a sample so get into it! Denne said “Bookmarked!”
Bonus Dessert!
Lil Nas X has…. changed everything forever (just in case you’ve been living under a rock)
I mean, what even is there to say? Just watch. And watch again. And stream. Protect Lil Nas X at all costs.