03. Surviving Another Pandemic

Snarky Opener (0:00)

So, after decades of neglect and little support from the government, the HIV research conducted by the LGBTQ community and its allies ended up paving the way for the COVID vaccine. So, you're welcome, straight people.

Episode Introduction (0:31)

Hello, my LGBTQuties, and welcome back to another episode of A Jaded Gay. I'm Rob loveless, and today I am a jaded gay because I'm in the closet. I mean, literally, in the closet of my bedroom.

You know, as I've been working on this podcast, I've been trying to improve the audio quality. I'm in here recording because I read that you get better audio levels when you're in a smaller space where there's less room for your voice to carry off the walls and all that.

So, I literally tried to turn my closet into a quote-unquote recording studio. I stuffed pillows into all the shelves to kind of balance out the echoes there. I put a sheet up behind me to help kind of counteract some of my voice from carrying off the walls.

So, you know, just the lengths I go through for my listeners. And by listeners, I mean the five friends that I coerced into listening to this podcast. God bless, y'all.

COVID-19's Impact on the LGBTQ+ Community (1:17) 

Anyway, thank you for tuning in to another episode, and buckle up bitches because this is going to be a little bit of a bumpy ride. Today, we're going to be talking about the COVID-19 pandemic and how it's disproportionately affected the LGBTQ community.

You know, we're two years into the pandemic, it sucks. And it seems like it's not going away. But I think it's really important to call out that minority communities have been disproportionately affected by this, including the LGBTQ+ community.

And for some gay men, the fear and response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it's been reminiscent of the early days of the AIDS crisis. So that brings up a lot of trauma, a lot of anxiety, and a lot of concern for the future. So, as you can tell, this is going to be a very light, fluffy, and heartwarming episode.

But before we dive too deep into the trauma, let's pull our tarot card for the episode.

Tarot (1:59) 

So, today's card is the Page of Cups. And for me personally, the Suit of Cups is my favorite in the tarot deck. Cups is tied to feminine energy. So, it's more meditative, more thoughtful, and it's tied directly to the water element, which is reflective of emotions.

So, you can think of how water runs freely just like our emotions. So, whenever we pull a card within the Cup suit, you can tell it's going to relate to our emotions and how we process our feelings and reflecting on those. This card signals emotional intelligence and messages in our life that praise us for actively expressing our feelings.

So, this page could represent ourselves or somebody else. And regardless of who the page signifies, it reminds us that we need to be open to receiving messages from unexpected sources, including our own intuition.

And this is something that I've touched upon in the past episodes, saying we need to find our own form of self-validation, trust ourselves. And again, because this page is in the suit of Cups, tied to that elemental source of water, it basically represents the love and flowing emotion that we should feel from this card.

And going into this episode, I can already see some ties into this and how we can show and support each other within the gay community because we're going to be talking about how the gay community has been overlooked both during the AIDS crisis and the COVID pandemic.

The Origins of the AIDS Epidemic (3:10)

To kick us off, we're going to go back in time, specifically June 5, 1981. According to HIV.gov, on June 5, the CDC published an article describing cases of a rare lung infection in five young, previously healthy gay men living in Los Angeles.

These men had other unusual infections as well, indicating that their immune systems weren't working properly. By the time this report was published, two of those five men had already died, and the other three died soon after its publication. And this article marks the first official reporting of what became known as the AIDS epidemic.

Now, obviously, at that time, not a lot was known. There was kind of a panic around who could get it, what this disease was. But ultimately, a lot of the scientific community was seeing that these infections were primarily occurring within gay men.

And since these infections were primarily appearing in that group, this illness was originally called Gay Related Immune Deficiency or GRID. This mystery illness was also referred to as the gay cancer, the gay plague, homosexual syndrome, and gay compromised syndrome.

And it wasn't until September of 1982 that the CDC first used the term Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, which is known as AIDS. They released the first case study of the definition, calling it, and this is a quote, "a disease at least moderately predictive of a defect in cell-mediated immunity occurring in a person with no known cause for diminished resistance to that disease."

Hopes for an AIDS Vaccine (4:31)

So now, we're gonna fast forward a few years to April 23 of 1984. Margaret Heckler, the US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary at that time, announced that Dr. Robert Gallo and his colleagues at the National Cancer Institute found the cause of AIDS.

It was caused by a retrovirus that they originally labeled HTLV-III. And that would later be known as HIV. So again, just some common knowledge. You get infected with HIV, and that can lead then to AIDS.

In that announcement, Heckler also revealed that they were working on a diagnostic blood test to identify HIV. And she also expressed hope that a vaccine against AIDS would be produced within two years. So, she was hoping for 1986.

And yet here we are in 2022, 38 years later, and we're just getting around to human trials of HIV vaccines.

Lives Lost in the Gay Community (5:16)

And think of all the lives that could have been saved if we got this vaccine within that two-year time frame that Heckler described. I mean, let me just give you some numbers.

By 1995, one in nine gay men in the United States had been diagnosed with AIDS. Again, not HIV; AIDS. One in 15 had died from AIDS. And approximately 160,000 self-identified gay men between the ages of 25 and 44 had died from AIDS.

In other words, that was 10% of that population at the time. Talk about gay erasure. I mean, honestly, an entire generation of gay men essentially died from AIDS during that time.

And truthfully, the government didn't lend much support and kind of turned a blind eye.

Government Response & Emergence of Antiretroviral Therapy (5:54)

If we had got more support from the government, then perhaps a vaccine would have made it onto the market within that time frame and could have saved all those lives. But they didn't.

In fact, then President Ronald Reagan didn't even address the AIDS crisis until about four years after the first cases emerged. And then his successor, George HW Bush, waited more than a year after taking office to first address the situation. And he made zero promises regarding funding to fight the pandemic. In fact, during his presidency, he repeatedly suggested that people should "change their behavior," so they didn't become infected by HIV.

And again, this is about 40 years back in history. So, during that time, being gay was even more of a cultural taboo. A lot of straight people and the government were turning their backs on the situation since it primarily affected gay men.

So, the LGBTQ community had to come together to support itself with the help of some true allies. Finally, in the late 90s, HIV treatments had improved. And in 1997, antiretroviral therapy was found to be highly effective and became the new standard of treatment.

So today, many who are diagnosed with HIV can live a long, healthy life. It's no longer a terminal illness; it's a chronic one that can be managed.

The Lingering Impact of HIV/AIDS Today (7:02)

And that's great. But as a result, talk around it has kind of dwindled so that many outside of the gay community don't really think too much about it.

I mean, a few years back, I went to see Bohemian Rhapsody in theaters with my parents. And on the car ride home, my mom was commenting on some of the sex scenes around, you know, the 80s gay clubs where people would go there for sex, and it was just kind of anonymous and unprotected.

And it led to a conversation about HIV and AIDS. And my dad even said, "Yeah, it kind of just went away. You don't really hear about it anymore." Which, he didn't mean to be ignorant, but it's just a different world that they don't think twice about this because it's not something they have to really worry about.

And again, it's not being talked about as much in the news. So, people kind of just forget about it. Whereas for us gay men, it's still a primary concern. You know, we've been raised to know that there's a higher prevalence of HIV in gay men, so we have to be safe, stay protected. If you go to your doctors, they might be pushing PREP on you or whatnot.

So, it is something that's at the front of mind for a lot of us. However, while there may not be as much talk are headlines around HIV, that pandemic is still continuing today.

In fact, in 2020, there were 1.5 million new infections globally and nearly 700,000 deaths from AIDS-related illnesses. Now, obviously, I'm just scratching the surface here with the HIV/AIDS epidemic. I definitely want to do a longer deep dive into it for a future episode and cover the full history of that.

But today, I just wanted to bring up that background information because we're all currently living through a global pandemic. And we're two years in.

And like I said earlier, for some gay men who had lived through the AIDS crisis, the COVID-19 situation is reminiscent of that.

HIV Research Paved the Way for Rapid COVID Vaccine Development (8:33)

But unlike the AIDS crisis, the COVID response has been fast, and we got a vaccine out in less than a year.

Remember, in 1984, they were hoping to get a vaccine out in two years. And it's just happening now in 2022. So, how was the COVID vaccine able to come out so quickly?

Well, I'll tell you why. Because decades of work done by HIV researchers, specifically around the mRNA technology, was leveraged to fast-track this COVID vaccine.

And just to put things in perspective, over 20 years, from 2000 to 2020, the US government contributed 12 billion towards HIV vaccine research and development. So, that's about 600 million a year for 20 years. Meanwhile, within a few months of the COVID pandemic, the US government quickly allocated 10 billion to COVID vaccine research.

Now, obviously, that's great. We want COVID to go away. We need this vaccine out there. We need people to get vaccinated and wear their masks so we can end this and return to some sort of normalcy.

Now, the point there is that government funding is a crucial component of vaccine research and development, something that was clearly lacking during the height of the AIDS pandemic. You know, and this was something that I really thought about at the start of our current pandemic we're living through.

Back in March 2020, when things were first starting up and there was a lot of fear and uncertainty, I saw an online suggestion to watch the 2012 documentary How to Survive a Pandemic. And basically, it outlines the efforts of AIDS activist groups ACT UP and TAG in those early days when there wasn't much government funding or support. Great movie, definitely recommend it. But like I said, it drew a lot of parallels between the AIDS crisis to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Again, obviously, this pandemic is something that's affecting everyone. But it does disproportionately affect minority communities, especially the LGBTQ+ community who had already undergone a pandemic back in the 80s, had suffered during the AIDS crisis, had to fund their own research for the most part. Because there was little government support, and then that initial research that has developed over time that, again, we've gotten limited government funding from. Like I said, it was at 12 billion over 20 years.

That research was leveraged then to overcome this current COVID pandemic, which is still disproportionately affecting gay men.

Disproportionate Impact #1: Employment & Finances (10:37)

So, I did a little bit of research, and I found this white paper published by the HRC. It's titled The Lives and Livelihoods of Many in the LGBTQ Community are at Risk Amidst COVID-19 Crisis. And it illustrates how our community faces an increased risk of exposure, economic disparity, and barriers to healthcare.

Now, full transparency, I think this is a little dated. I think it came out in the early days of the COVID pandemic. I'll call it out as we go on. But there are a couple pieces where they're talking about political legislation that I know changed past June 2020. So, I think it was published sometime in that spring beforehand.

But just to kick things off with risk exposure, approximately 40% of the LGBTQ community surveyed works in industries that are highly affected by COVID. So, I'm going to go through these top five industries and the number of LGBTQ people they employ. First off, we have:

• Restaurants and food services employ 2 million
• Hospitals employ 1 million
• K through 12 Education employs about 1 million
• Colleges and universities employ about 1 million
• And retail employs about half a million

And again, those numbers are all indicative of LGBTQ people specifically. So, in terms of economic disparity, LGBTQ people are more likely to live in poverty compared to straight and cisgender people.

In fact, nearly one in 10 LGBTQ people are unemployed. And 22% of LGBTQ adults live in poverty compared to the estimated 16% poverty rate.

And keep in mind, discrimination in the workplace has created economic barriers for our community way before the pandemic ever started. And just to detail that a little further, 11 to 28% of LGBTQ adults reported that they lost promotion because of their sexual orientation.

And 27% of transgender workers reported having been fired, not hired, or denied promotion due to their transgender identity.

And going back to those early days of the pandemic, 17% of LGBTQ people lost their jobs compared to 13% of the general population. Which, I'm sure goes back to the fact that 40% of LGBTQ workers were working in industries that were highly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Disproportionate Impact #2: Access to Healthcare (12:45)

So, because of this economic disparity, both caused by years of workplace discrimination and then negative financial impacts because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this makes it more difficult for LGBTQ people to afford health care.

In fact, 17% of LGBTQ adults don't have health insurance compared to 12% of non-LGBTQ adults. What's even more alarming is that 23% of LGBTQ adults of color, 22% of transgender adults, and 32% of transgender adults of color have no form of health coverage. Those are pretty staggering numbers.

And again, obviously, that lack of insurance makes it difficult or sometimes even impossible to afford basic health care, such as getting COVID tested and treating it. So, that financial strain can lead people to just, in general, avoid getting health care.

And while we're talking about health care, let's not forget, the Trump administration tried to remove nondiscrimination protections for transgender people in health care in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

What a great fucking idea. Let's strip health insurance privileges for people during a global pandemic. Now, luckily, it was blocked by a federal judge in August 2020. But like, are you kidding me? I could...I digress. Anyway, let's move on to looking at families with same-sex parents.

Disproportionate Impact #3: Family Leave Inequities (14:01)

On top of those economic disparities I already went into, same-sex couples raising children are twice as likely to be living near the poverty line. And for single LGBTQ parents, that risk is even higher. And there are some unique challenges for same-sex couples when it comes to paid medical and family leave.

Now, obviously, the US is behind this issue as a whole, and other countries have surpassed us in the way that they provide family and medical leave. However, there's an additional layer of complexity there when it comes to LGBTQ people.

So, according to the HRC's 2018 LGBTQ Paid Leave Survey, fewer than half of respondents reported that their employers’ policies cover new parents of all genders equally. So, if you think about this, traditionally, you'd have, you know, maternity and paternity leave, and typically maternity leave is longer than paternity leave.

However, if you have a same-sex couple of two men, then they only qualify for paternity leave. So, they're getting a reduced amount of paid leave because they only qualify for paternity leave, and the benefits of maternity leave don't apply to them.

Additionally, LGBTQ workers facing a major life event are often left with leave policies that the HRC describes as "under-inclusive at best."

And even for LGBTQ workers whose employers have a formal paid leave policy, one in five respondents in the 2018 survey reported that fears of discrimination could prevent them from requesting a leave if it would require disclosing their LGBTQ identity.

LGBTQ workers also remain at risk of being fired if they are forced to come out when requesting leave. And that same survey from 2018 found that 50% of respondents had taken time off for a medical reason, but only 29% said their employer offered paid leave specifically for medical reasons and that they were eligible to use it.

Now, again, some of this is outdated. In June 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that employers could not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, and some of the data in the HRC document were from those 2018 surveys.

But that doesn't change the lack of inclusive policies and the fact that LGBTQ people are being overlooked for promotions and even for hire sometimes. But what that all points to is that if an LGBTQ person suspects that they have contracted COVID-19, they may be unable to take time off to care for themselves or for family members.

And then there's the issue that if they're not able to take the time off, they can't take care of themselves, they still have to go into work. They're around other people, and they risk spreading the virus to others.

Disproportionate Impact #4: Elder Isolation and Youth Homelessness (16:23)

And on top of that, there's also some unique challenges affecting the various age groups within the LGBTQ community.

For example, older LGBTQ people are twice as likely to be living alone and four times less likely to have children, which ultimately leads up to a lack of support.

In fact, the AARP conducted a survey of LGBTQ adults over the age of 50 and found that three in four respondents were concerned about having enough support from family and friends at their age.

And then, on the other end of the spectrum, we have LGBTQ youth who are 120% more likely to experience homelessness compared to non-LGBTQ youth. It's also estimated that 30% of youth in foster care are members of the LGBTQ community.

So, these circumstances mean that LGBTQ youth may rely heavily on food and other resources provided by public schools and their affiliated child welfare agencies. And with all these closures during the pandemic, these youth are more likely to suffer.

And while we're talking about closures, let's not forget that gay bars have been suffering for years. During the pandemic, too, obviously, a lot of restaurants and bars had to close down, and gay bars were no exception. And these closures definitely didn't help.

Some are permanently closed now and not reopening. And for some members of the LGBTQ community, this was their safe space where they came to meet and socialize with other gay men. So, with all these factors, it's contributing to a greater sense of isolation for a group that already feels alone.

Remember, we talked about the earlier episode about gay loneliness, which has had such negative impacts on our mental health.

And, you know, it goes without saying, but obviously, having chronic illnesses that affect the immune system, like HIV, makes individuals much more susceptible to COVID.

Episode Closing (17:59)

So again, obviously, COVID affects everyone, not just the LGBTQ community, but you can see how there are some unique circumstances that are specifically hurting the community more during the pandemic than the rest of the general population.

And that's why it's so infuriating when people aren't following what they're supposed to do. When they won't get vaccinated, when they won't wear a mask, and they say, "Well, what does it matter? It's just my body, blah, blah, blah, this and that. What does matter if I get it?"

It's not just you that that risk. While you might be somebody who has the resources to stay healthy and be taken care of, if you were to get COVID, other people you spread it to may not be so fortunate.

So, like I said at the start of the episode, we're two years into this pandemic now. Collective sigh. It's still a mess, we've learned a lot, we've made progress, but we still have a ways to go. And it doesn't seem like COVID's going away anytime soon.

While some things are out of our control, namely proper legislation and workplace policies that actually protect us, we need to take action to help ourselves and to help others. And in my mind, this is where the Page of Cups card comes in. We need to show and give love and support to those in our community. And if we need that support, we need to find ways to accept that support and love into our lives.

So, if you're in a position to help out, reach out to some local organizations in your area. Check your local equality center, there might be an LGBTQ shelter and a community healthcare facility in your area to see how you can get involved. And maybe they need volunteers. Maybe they need monetary donations, or maybe, you know, care packages.

Whatever it is, reach out and do something to help others. I was looking around online, and I did find that there are some national philanthropic initiatives focusing on helping the LGBTQ community specifically impacted by the pandemic. So, if you're interested in donating or learning more, I’d definitely check out the following. There is:

• Prism Foundation's COVID-19 Relief Fund
• Astraea's Collective Care Community
• And Stonewall Community Foundation's Response Fund

I'd also recommend checking out the Ali Forney Center. They're the largest agency dedicated to helping LGBTQ homeless youth in the United States. I actually donate to them on a monthly basis. They're a great organization to help out.

And again, if you're somebody who's been impacted by COVID, definitely check out these resources as well. If you need affordable health care, look to see if there's an LGBTQ community-based health facility in your area.

You can also visit Out2Enroll.org. That's out, the number 2, enroll.org, which helps to connect the LGBTQ community with various health insurance coverage options available under the Affordable Care Act.

And while we're talking about health, let's talk about mental health. Obviously, for everyone, this pandemic has been a source of anxiety, depression, fatigue. It's been a struggle for all of us.

And right now, we're living in this kind of gray area where things are open, yet we're still semi-social distancing. Sometimes we're supposed to wear a mask, other places we're not. So, we're still not fully back to where we need to be to have that source of community and support where we can be with each other freely and not worry about getting COVID.

So that being said, make sure you make time to safely connect with your support system, whether it's friends, family, neighbors, whoever. You know, set up time to call each other, video call, whatever it is. Just it's important to get that face time so that you're having that interpersonal connections with people still in this time where it's really easy to be closed off and isolated.

If you feel like you don't have a support system or having a mental health crisis, there are a couple of resources you can reach out to. For LGBTQ youth, there's the Trevor Project, where you can talk to a counselor. They also have a TrevorSpace platform where you can connect with other LGBTQ youth and make friends.

And then, for LGBT adults, you can contact the LGBT National Hotline. Their number is 888-843-4564.

So, once you're done listening to this episode, get involved, get out there, and do something to help. Nothing is too small, whether it's a $5 donation to an organization or just checking on your friend to see how they're doing. Just take the initiative to do something.

Obviously, if you're someone who needs assistance, check out these resources. Also, GLAAD and the HRC have listed a ton of resources to help you during this time.

So, check that out. And I'm sure this is only scratching the surface. This is what I was able to find through doing some research, but there's probably a ton more out there helping the LGBTQ community.

Connect with A Jaded Gay (22:01)

So, if you know other ways to get involved, I'd love to hear from you. Feel free to reach out to me on Instagram and Twitter @ajadedgaypod, or my personal Insta is @rob_loveless.

And feel free to reach out and let me know ways that we can work together and support each other during this time. In the meantime, do your best to stay strong.

I know things seem bleak with this COVID-19 pandemic, but we will get through it. This is temporary, and we need to just keep trudging along until things get better. So, in the meantime, stay healthy. Stay safe.

And remember every day is all we have, so you got to make your own happiness. Thank you for listening, and I'll see you next week.

Mmm-bye.