Photo by Lucy von Cucci
Back in February when the White House told us the COVID-19 cases “were going to be down close to zero”, the CDC warned we should prepare for “significant disruption in our lives.” The CDC was right. Meanwhile, the world has been hit hard. For LGBTQs, too, what was once life as we knew it has changed dramatically. The reality is that some LGBTQ people are at increased risk for severe reaction to the COVID-19 virus due to our higher rates of smoking, compromised immunity and cancers as well as the pervasive health disparities found in our community. We are responding accordingly and creatively.
For up-to-date COVID-19 information, the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center website offers links to federal, state and county health services. It also provides continued remote access to its own range of services. Similarly, Diverse & Resilient’s website provides access to its various services and advocates for the queer, trans, bisexual indigenous people of color and gender non-conforming community. These include HIV testing and its “Room to be Safe” anti-violence program. It has also cancelled the upcoming LGBTQ Summit.
With the demands of social distancing impacting LGBTQ small businesses, many are resorting to online fundraising to support their staff and pay the bills. This Is It, the city’s oldest gay bar (and among the oldest in the nation), was the first to launch a GoFundMe campaign. Having heavily invested in the bar’s expansion and renovation just over a year ago, the owners found themselves in a financial predicament that may have closed the historic venue. The campaign has proven very successful. This Is It has also been live-streaming its Drag Queen Revue on social media with traditional tipping accomplished through CashApp.
Meanwhile, the Harbor Room has since created its own GoFundMe account, primarily to support its employees as has Dale Gutzman to save his decades old Off the Wall Theater. In an effort to support its staff and in-house performers, Hamburger Mary’s now offers an innovative drag queen food delivery service with fees going to the besequined and high-heeled Divas and their drivers.
Beyond critically vulnerable businesses, other entities are addressing these extraordinary times with community conscious strategies. Metropolitan Community Church Pastor Rev. Toby Topjian announced the suspension of programs but also the live-streaming of upcoming Easter services as well as YouTube videos of sermons. Meanwhile, on March 27, Miss Gay Wisconsin 2020, Lucy von Cucci live streamed an edition of Drag Queen Story Time via her Facebook page. Milwaukee GAMMA has cancelled its monthly calendar of social events but is encouraging its members to stay in touch remotely. Milwaukee Pride, Inc president Wes Shaver declared the postponement of its main event, PrideFest, the first of the lakefront festivals to do so.
Elsewhere, dating apps are busy with the increase of their house-bound bored and horny participants who are hopefully resisting the urge for physical proximity and instead connecting through video chats or settling for yearning billets doux per text messaging.
With predictions of the COVID-19 cases peaking in late April or May and estimates of its continued impact over the year, a return to normal life is unlikely anytime soon. But, as in the past, the LGBTQ community is carrying on regardless and providing for its own. We’ve borne the weight of one pandemic already. And, although this one is very different, we are resourceful, and, to paraphrase Gloria Gaynor and provide an ear worm for the moment, “we will survive.”
