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I work retail, so I see a lot of members of the public everyday. By now, most everyone no longer wears masks. With few exceptions though, there are two groups I notice who still wear masks with some regularity - older folks (which totally makes sense, weakened immune systems and all that), and young queer folks.
By this I mean people with progress flag buttons/patches/pins/shirts/hats usually paired with other social justice accessories, and, not to stereotype, but quite often also with unusual or brightly dyed hairstyles.
I want to be clear, this isn't a judgement thing, or a criticism or anything. I'm just genuinely curious why the LGBTQ+ community seems to be the last holdout of mask wearers. I suppose some of it could be confirmation bias, but I'm very confident in calling this a trend.
Not trying to debate anyone, just trying to understand!
My dad died of COVID a month before he was eligible for the vaccine. I'm still sore about that. I don't want to be the disease vector that leads to someone's death.
My partner's girlfriend's boyfriend is immunocompromised. My partner has a history of illness that might make him more susceptible to COVID. At the beginning of the pandemic, we negotiated that we would both mask outside the home and we've renegotiated that I'll not mask in some low-risk settings, but stores are still on the "must mask" list.