Some 92 percent of American LGBTQs took the jab

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation, is the “educational” unit of America’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization. It released new data showing that the vast majority of homosexual adults US have had at least one injection for Covid-19.

Despite high vaccination rates in this community, they were more likely to get Covid-19 compared to all adults in the United States.

The Rockefeller Foundation funded this first-of-its-kind LGBTQ-focused jab data through the Community Marketing & Insights’ (CMI) 15th annual LGBTQ Community Survey involving 15 000 respondents of this community.

“We are encouraged to see evidence that suggests such a strong majority of the LGBTQ+ community who responded to the survey have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. The science is clear: vaccines are our way forward and out of this pandemic. The Human Rights Campaign Foundation will continue working with our partners to ensure that no one in our community is left behind. We are proud to work with The Rockefeller Foundation and Community Marketing & Insights on the release of this essential data.”

Jay Brown, Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Senior Vice President of Programs, Research and Training, pointed out that even though vaccination rates may vary within the community, the rates are well above the rates for various general adult populations, defying racial, gender and age barriers.

In terms of race and ethnicity, 90 percent of Latin respondents, 85 percent of black respondents, 96 percent of Asian and 85 percent of Native American and Middle Eastern gays, have had at least one jab while more than 90 percent of “cisgender lesbians”, “cisgender gays” and “transgender and non-binary” people have received at least one shot. And in terms of age, the data looked much the same.

The Rockefeller Foundation called the release “crucial data” because it would help to increase “vaccination rates among communities of color”. According to the foundation “the Human Rights Campaign Foundation gives us the opportunity to better understand the impact of Covid-19 on LGBTQ communities of color.”

CMI Senior Director of Research, David Paisley noted about the survey that higher percentages of the LGBTQ community were liberals, lived in blue states, and in urban areas, which explained the high rate of vaccination in this group. Participants notably had high education levels, but even those with no more than a high school diploma still had an 87 percent vaccination rate.

“We also see that COVID isolation significantly impacted LGBTQ people, which may have motivated quick vaccination to reenter the community,” according to Paisley.

The pandemic has led to social and financial loss for POC gays. Those surveyed were more likely than white LGBTQs to have experienced a negative financial impact during the pandemic. While vaccination rates were high, Covid-19 not only took a toll on the financial well-being among respondents.

The survey found that 59 percent of LGBTQ respondents reported that Covid-19 made them feel socially isolated, and 50 percent of respondents reported that it impacted their mental health.

Meanwhile, a former Florida congressional candidate and self-described “powerhouse progressive and LGBT” Richard Rowe, who had continuously heaped scorn on the unvaccinated, died after his second Pfizer injection. Rowe ran for seats in the Florida House of Representative and the US House of Representatives in 2020. He lost in the primaries in the previous and dropped out before the primaries in the latter race.

His public hatred and vitriol towards the unvaccinated at every opportunity was quite remarkable: “I really don’t give a shit what happens to you,” he said on social media, referring to the unvaccinated. Previously he had welcomed the demise of these people as a “darwinian” inevitability since they belong at “the bottom of the food chain”.

The GoFundMe page set up to pay for his funeral however stated: “Ricky was that guy who had everyone else’s best interest at heart well before his own.”