Currently, there are more than 2,400 cases in the U.S., a number that has tripled in three weeks
For many men who have sex with men, it’s been the entire topic of conversation for over a month. That and how to get vaccinated against it. The question of how serious it is — despite the somewhat cute-sounding name — was soon answered as more and more people got it and shared their vivid genital experiences online.
On Thursday night, one block away from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in New York, a hundred or so activists organized by a number of organizations, including ACT UP New York, PrEP4All, and VOCAL-NY, got together in Foley Square to stand up to the local and federal governments. The gathering was preempted by a list of demands released by the groups, the majority having to do with the need for tests, treatment, and vaccines .
And so begins a lineup of speakers, many of whom recognize the number of “Silence=Death” T-shirts in the crowd and hark back to 1980s New York and the “Reagan Republican homophobic shit administration” at the time. “How am I 13 again? What is going on?” I overhear a bear with a ’stache ask his friend. State Senator Brad Hoylman quotes Larry Kramer, “Watch the numbers, use the numbers to understand — and with that understanding, go big, and go big soon.” Then: “The pandemic is on fire.
Few things lighten up the crowd, where the mood isn’t so much angry or sad as it is general hopelessness. One speaker in an ACT UP crop top tries to spark a call and repeat of, “More testing, more vaccines, more treatment, Miss Thing,” but it’s as cringey as it is unfunny. Only Cecilia Gentili of Trans Equity Consulting, in cat’s-eye glasses, can make anyone giggle by admitting what perhaps everyone’s thinking: “I finally got my air conditioner.