NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — An LGBTQ+ dance party scheduled for Sunday was canceled due to monkeypox concerns.
The cancellation of Sunrise Summer Edition, part of the popular Alegria event series, is one of the first — if not the first — of its kind.
The event was slated to run from noon to 10 p.m., but party promoter Ric Sena posted a message announcing the cancellation and automatic refunds on his website.
“Due to the growing concerns around the Monkeypox outbreak in NYC we feel the responsible action is to cancel our Sunday, July 17th event,” wrote Sena. “We take your health, security and peace of mind very seriously and know you will understand this decision to help protect our community.”
“We wish for everyone to take appropriate precautions and stay safe until we can meet again safely on the dance floor,” he continued.
Monkeypox has spread especially quickly in the gay community. It spreads through close skin-to-skin contact, but it is not a sexually transmitted disease. Sex does involve the kind of close contact necessary for it to spread, though.
“What likely happened in this case is that somebody who had monkeypox had a lesion and showed up at a gay rave in Europe, and it spread to those in that social and sexual network,” epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves told the New York Times. “Because the virus prefers close physical contact as a means of transmission, it found a very suitable environment for which to propagate itself.”
The gay community has thus far been disproportionately impacted by the monkeypox outbreak, and if someone was infected at an event like Sunrise, it could spread very easily.
Despite the increased risk for gay people, the World Health Organization encouraged queer events to continue in mid-June.
New York City has struggled in its attempts to distribute the monkeypox vaccine.
The city’s website for booking an appointment crashed due to high traffic on Tuesday, and walk-in appointments were nixed due to high demand.
Appointments for another 8,200 doses will become available Friday at 6 p.m. and can be booked here.
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