As Queer Spaces Return to “Normal,” Disabled LGBTQ+ People Are Being Left Behind

At this year's Creating Change conference for LGBTQ+ activism, advocates say lack of mandatory COVID precautions is leaving out disabled attendees. 
As Queer Spaces Return to “Normal” Disabled LGBTQ People Are Being Left Behind
Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

When over 2500 attendees arrive in San Francisco for the annual LGBTQ+ advocacy conference Creating Change 2023 this weekend, they will enter a space without any mandatory COVID-19 precautions. Citing local San Francisco public health guidelines, the conference won’t require masking, testing, or proof of vaccination — measures that other events have implemented for their attendees, including the recent World Economic Forum in Switzerland. And unlike the past two years, in which the conference was held entirely online, the event will not offer a virtual attendance option for attendees who cannot be there in person. 

Since it first convened in Washington, D.C., in 1988, Creating Change has been an important annual event for queer and trans advocates to build leadership skills for the LGBTQ+ rights movement. But despite being informed by the community’s response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, disability activists say that The National LGBTQ Task Force, the organization that plans the conference, has dismissed the concerns of immunocompromised, disabled, and other high risk people who would like to be safely in the room — or, at the very least, on Zoom. 

“There's a further enlarging chasm of people that are getting left behind in society,” says Ngozi Alston, a disability justice fellow at the online training organization Peoples Hub. “At the bare minimum, there could have been a hybrid option.” 

Instead of implementing lessons learned about access and inclusion over the past three years, many queer spaces, even activist-oriented ones like Creating Change, are ignoring the realities of the ongoing pandemic. High-risk groups, as a result, are left to suffer the consequences. And with Long COVID, which has disabled millions of Americans and burdens trans and bisexual people, the problem isn’t going away anytime soon.

Earlier this month, Creating Change 2023’s website stated the conference and The Task Force were released from all liability related to COVID-19, COVID-19 variants, and any other communicable infections arising from participation at the conference. Last week, however, the conference updated its health policy to note that anyone who tests positive of COVID-19 or is experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 or other illnesses should not attend the conference and will be fully refunded of their registration fee. It also now “strongly encourages” masking in high quality respirators like N95s throughout the conference. The conference’s website also has an accessibility section that lists various services provided by the event, including ASL and Spanish-language translation of panels. 

When asked about COVID precautions, Cathy Renna, communications director for The National LGBTQ Task Force, wrote in an email, “We know these are challenging times and also believe individuals need to be able to make their own choices given the current circumstances. We will have masks, sanitizer and COVID tests available free of charge for all participants who want them.”

While the conference is following the public health guidance of the City of San Francisco, which does not require masking in public spaces, advocates say that in today's environment, mandated COVID precautions should be a considered a key aspect of accessibility. 

LGBTQ+ activist history has always included disabled and high-risk queer people, says HIV/AIDS public historian Brendan McHugh. He notes that during the AIDS crisis of the ‘80s and ‘90s, when many people within and outside the LGBTQ+ community became debilitated or disabled by the illness, it made them directly confront healthcare access and death. Grassroots activist groups like ACT UP pushed for patient-led research, treatments, disability benefits, and other healthcare advocacy through direct political action. 

But McHugh also says that the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS during the crisis wasn’t limited to the federal government or mainstream America. “There was a lot of stigma within the queer community, too,” he says, “And there still is today around HIV/AIDS, COVID, and other illnesses. It’s why many organizers, even of queer events, don’t see public health as being something about accessibility and access.”

Even though The Task Force says that it is working to make the conference  “as safe as possible,” disability advocates such as JD Davids, a strategist at Long COVID Justice, called the conference's health policy ableist. “Requiring masks and testing would make the conference much safer for everyone,” he says. “It’s a missed opportunity for [the Task Force] to highlight disability justice and educate people with clear information about COVID-19.”

Currently, around 2,000 to 3,000 Americans die each week from COVID while as many as 23 million adults live with Long COVID, a multisystemic chronic health condition experienced by around 1 in 5 people who are infected with SARS-CoV-2. The condition has disabled millions, can last for years, and has no known cure. Repeat infections also put people at increased risk of Long COVID. The condition can lead to other concurrent diagnoses like myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), dysautonomia, cardiovascular disease, and many others. LGBTQ+ people living with Long COVID and its concurrent diagnoses also face medical bias and financial hardship.

When states and cities began dropping mask mandates last winter, many high risk people became exiled in a “pandemic limbo,” isolated from society as even essential businesses like pharmacies and grocery stores deserted COVID-19 precautions. That limbo may extend even further given the Biden administration’s announcement that it will formally end the COVID-19 Emergency Declaration in May, despite high death rates and continued spread that may lead to more disabling Long COVID cases. When the declaration ends, people who are immunocompromised or disabled will have to jump through more hoops and barriers to attain adequate care. Simultaneously, as many as 15 million Americans could also lose Medicaid coverage. 

Oni Blackstock, an HIV physician and founder of the racial and health equity consulting practice Health Justice, says it’s disheartening that there are LGBTQ+ spaces that are not accessible to people who are disabled or immunocompromised, further marginalizing them even within their own community. “We thought the pandemic would bring people together and make them realize we're all connected, but we’re seeing people being marginalized, excluded, and made vulnerable,” she says.  “I think the reality is that the shift from the collective response to the individual disproportionately burdens people who may be immunocompromised, disabled, or have chronic underlying conditions.” 

Bisexual people and trans people face higher levels of long COVID.
Activists are calling for more research and government support to address troubling health disparities.

Other similar gatherings have refused to budge on making masks a requirement at indoor events: An open letter penned to the AWP Writers Conference currently has 1,000 signatures of people requesting that it mandate facial coverings. But not all conferences have ditched COVID-19 safety precautions. The Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), which is hosted in Seattle, Washington, overlaps with Creating Change this year. The annual HIV/AIDS meeting has a mandatory mask policy, a vaccination requirement for in-person attendees, as well as virtual options.

“By making society more accessible to all, everyone benefits,” says Terri Wilder, a consultant for the ME advocacy group MEAction and ACT UP member. 

“If we're not thinking about the idea of collective liberation in all of our activism, then what are we doing?” says Wilder. “I want to live in a world where I care about you and you care about me and that we do things to make sure we can have the healthiest and happiest existence while we're here.”

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