In what is surely a sign of the times, two LGBTQ community centers will be hosting vaccination events Sunday, August 21. In addition to jabs in the arm, one event will feature live entertainment.
The Spahr Center, Marin County's LGBTQ community center, will host a community picnic called "Kings, Queens, and Vaccines" from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday at Stafford Lake Park in Novato. Besides offering COVID and monkeypox vaccinations, as well as HIV testing, the event will feature live entertainment. Monkeypox vaccines are limited to 100 and will be available for those who meet vaccination eligibility requirements. Reservations are available here.
"The music headliner for the event is Bobby Jo Valentine, a Sonoma-County based nationally-known singer songwriter," stated Fel Agrelius, director of LGBTQ+ programs for the Spahr Center, in a news release. "Valentine will be joined by two drag performers — Linda Summers and King Lotus Boy, and drag story hour featuring Eden Noodles. The stage will include ASL interpretation all day."
"This program is unique," Agrelius continued. "I haven't seen a COVID (or monkeypox) vaccination clinic that also has live entertainment, not to mention drag performances! Queer activists have a history of developing innovative responses to emergent issues, and I am glad that the Spahr Center is following in that tradition."
Across the bay in Alameda County the same day, the Oakland LGBTQ+ Center will hold what is expected to be the first in an ongoing series of monkeypox vaccination clinics, through September 25. The clinic will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., directly across from the center and the T-Mobile store, beneath the 580 overpass at 533 Lakepark Avenue, according to an email announcement. For more information and to pre-register as required, click here.
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