I texted back that the mood in town was jubilant. I thought about the vaccines’ well-publicized efficacy rate, and the articles saying that occasional breakthrough infections were nothing to panic about. I remembered what another friend had told me about how many leather bars are designed as long, corridor-like spaces to enable cruising and casual brushes. I looked around the room and saw burly guys-it was Bear Week-chatting over beers. The first time I heard there was a problem, I was hanging out in a leather bar.Ī friend texted with news that Provincetown, Massachusetts, the queer beach town where I’d been vacationing, had experienced a spike of COVID-19 cases among vaccinated people.
