COVID-19: Save yourself first.

“Things are different for me because I’m gay.”

That’s what I say to people when they ask about the COVID-19 vaccines and how I see them: a social and economic protection, before anything medical.

Queer people, we have been suffering from another pandemic called AIDS. Remember? It’s still here. And if few of us actually suffered physically, we have all been paying the price of this pandemic for the worst part of 40 years, to this very day.

AIDS was labelled a “gay disease” straight away, and still is. About 80% of the straight people I know do not use protection. They were told, like I was in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, that it happens to “the gays” because they are sleazy perverts and shag everything that moves. It doesn’t happen to virtuous people in stable relationships. Chastity and commitment are the keys to fighting AIDS and the gays are sinners. The media were full of this crap.

Now, it’s not because “AIDS is for gays” anymore but they don’t use protection because they have been told it only happens to people who are “not careful” or morally upright: sex pests, drug addicts, alcoholics, the poor.

Just like COVID-19 that “only happens” to people who are not careful: do not wear a scarf when it’s cold, do not eat organic, are not vegan, do not eat meat, do not have a spoon of honey before bed, are lazy, the poor.

The social and economic consequences of AIDS on the LGBTQ+ have been devastating because it has been used by countries as a “valid” reason to justify the exclusion of queer people. Suddenly, it was not baseless bigotry or fear but solid scientific common sense: we are a deadly threat and need to be contained.

We were barred from jobs in the army, the police and fire fighting, the medical and teaching professions because we were all potential AIDS carriers and if we bled, we would kill someone. Employers were allowed to fire us or discriminate. There are still restrictions in most countries in the world, including White countries (aka First World, Western or Rich countries).

Despite thorough testing of everyone’s blood, very few countries allow queers to give their blood and organs under the conclusion that it would be counter-productive if our body killed rather than healed people.

Very few of my straight friends have been badgered or even simply asked about protection or safe sex by their doctors but every doctor I ever went to, in France, felt it was their mission to have me describe in details all the safeguards I had in place after I said I was gay.

In the light of this, I do not trust mankind to not yet again use this pandemic to pariah people, for whatever reason. It’s the oldest story in the world, epidemics are always used to cleanse society from its perceived foes: single women aka witches, Jews, the disabled, the poor.

This is the first and foremost reason I chose to have the vaccine.
To protect myself.
To be able to say: No no no! I’m going in! I have the pass! I belong!

And I’ll do the same if and when we have one for AIDS. Or any other disease.

Before some self-righteous sense of civic duty, or worry for others, it’s about me! My survival as a person, even before my survival as an animal.

The difference between AIDS and COVID-19 is that LGBTQ+ are not in fact more dangerous than other people, it is an exclusion based on a non-negotiable identity rather than a choice. I can’t choose to be queer, I just am so there’s no escape in the face unjust laws that target my identity. Before all medical and health considerations, I wanted the vaccine so I can protect myself socially and economically.

You can choose to have the vaccine and save yourself. As of today, countries that are closing the doors to the unvaccinated are also giving you a set of keys. That’s the difference with drowning witches to appease God’s fury, we are given the key to both our social and medical safety.

It’s your choice to use that key. Bear in mind, there are no windows to break in.