For LGBTQ people in New York City, the last Friday in June is usually a happy day. The streets come to life with the revealing signs of a weekend of celebration: music, dancing, kissing, the occasional trail of bright confetti.
But this year, at the height of the city’s most important Pride events, the atmosphere took on a different charge. Friday morning’s news of the Supreme Court’s decision to quash Roe v. Wade immediately changed the tenor of the weekend’s events. In many circles, group chats that days earlier had focused on party planning went on to coordinate protest plans. Further complicating people’s attitudes toward the weekend are questions and concerns about monkeypox, a virus that disproportionately affects gay men.
On Thursday, New York City health officials expanded access to a monkeypox vaccine, offering it to men who have had multiple or anonymous male sexual partners in the past 14 days. On Friday, 39 people in New York City had tested positive for orthopoxvirus, according to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which added that all 39 cases were believed to be smallpox.
According to the World Health Organization, monkeypox is transmitted from person to person through close contact with injuries, body fluids, respiratory drops and contaminated materials. The virus usually begins with flu-like symptoms, such as fever and swollen lymph nodes, and progresses to a painful rash.
While anyone can contract the virus, it is currently spreading primarily through communities of men who have sex with men, officials have said.
As photos of long queues of people waiting to be vaccinated at a Manhattan sexual health clinic circulated on social media and as news of monkeypox cases spread around the world, some New Yorkers began to reconsider their plans for the Pride weekend.
Joseph Osmundson, an assistant clinical professor of biology at New York University and a proponent of queer health care, said growing concerns about smallpox in monkeys had affected Pride plans of “almost everyone” he knew.
“Everything from, if you’re going to a circuit party, you’re going to be in the middle of the dance floor or you’re more on the sidelines, to the types of sex you have,” Dr. Osmundson, 39, said in a phone interview.
He said he thought people generally “make risk-conscious decisions” while still making room for “company, pleasure, community and leaving home.”
Finley King, 24, a film production assistant, said both concerns about smallpox smallpox and Roe’s news were affecting his plans for this weekend, but that he would feel relatively comfortable attending a protest and being on the sidelines or going to an outdoor party.
“In terms of worry, I’m on a 4 out of 10 on the panic scale,” he said, adding that he hadn’t seen many of his friends talking about the disease. “I’d say mostly people my age, or they know about monkeypox and they don’t care, or they don’t even know anything about it.”
Friday outside the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, Rusty Fox, 59, said the little apprehension he felt for smallpox from the monkey was probably just the residual anxiety of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’m a little paranoid, just because we’re still right behind Covid,” he said. “So this paranoia is running out.”
Michael Donnelly, a data scientist, expressed his frustration that this year’s Pride parties were marred by another virus.
“It’s very smelly that we have to deal with another infectious disease that is spreading in our community and we have to deal with an additional risk that we had not anticipated,” he said. But for 37-year-old Mr. Donnelly, the “huge demand” for the monkeypox vaccine on Thursday pointed to a favorable coating.
“I am proud to have a community that is communicating about our health, about science and is willing to get vaccines to keep us safe and also our communities,” he said.
What you need to know about the monkeypox virus
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What is monkeypox? Smallpox is a virus endemic to parts of central and western Africa. It is similar to smallpox, but less severe. It was discovered in 1958, after outbreaks occurred in monkeys kept for research, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
What are the symptoms? Monkeypox creates a rash that begins with flat red markings that rise and fill with pus. Infected people can also have fever and body aches. Symptoms usually appear between six and 13 days, but can take up to three weeks after exposure and can last between two and four weeks. Health officials say smallpox vaccines and other treatments can be used to control an outbreak.
How contagious is it? The virus spreads primarily through body fluids, skin contact, and respiratory droplets, although some experts suggest that it could occasionally pass through the air. It does not usually cause major outbreaks, although this year it has spread in unusual ways and among populations that have not been vulnerable in the past.
Do I have to worry? The likelihood of the virus spreading during sexual contact is high, but the risk of transmission in other ways is low. Most people have mild symptoms and recover within a few weeks, but the virus can be fatal in a small percentage of cases. Studies also suggest that older adults may have some protection against smallpox vaccines from decades ago.
This month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a guide to reducing the chance of getting monkeypox, noting that festivals, concerts and other events where attendees were probably fully dressed were safer than spaces. , such as radishes, saunas, and sex clubs, where minimal clothing was worn.
Some, like Chris Pierce, 26, were confident his personal precautions were enough.
“It’s definitely something that should worry people, especially when we’re behind closed doors and walls,” he said, “but staying out is probably my No. 1 goal this weekend.”
The only New York facility that administered the vaccine, the Chelsea Sexual Health Clinic in Manhattan, had to start rejecting people almost immediately after opening vaccinations to eligible New Yorkers on Thursday.
As for his plans for this weekend, Mr Donnelly said he was “one of the lucky few who was vaccinated and therefore feel a certain degree of additional security as a result”.
Jonathan Valdez, 36, a content creator and podcast host, said that for the first time, a friend of his told him he was happy to miss the New York City Pride, citing his concern about the smallpox. “A lot of people are afraid that after this weekend,” Mr. Valdez, “the numbers go up a lot.”
Jeremy Allen contributed to the report.