Thousands march for black trans lives

Good response. If it was so important to them why didn't THEY take pictures and send them to you? Speaking from a Chelsea point of view, I do not think Adam has ever been here himself covering things (correct me if I am wrong) but he has some Chelsea contributors who send him stuff or he picks it up from our local paper. He is one person depending on a volunteer corps of people.

I was invited to go myself but without knowing the lay of the land and knowing it would be crowded I decided it was better to visit family where I sat in their backyard ten feet from them as we chatted over cool drinks (I brought my own.)

Like Adam, I come into contact with a lot of people who have health issues and am heavy myself. I have been very selective about things I take pictures of and the two events for other things I have helped planned I canceled or scaled way back.

In short, Adam makes it incredibly easy to share first hand accounts of almost any event. If you want it covered then maybe put down the laptop, pick up the cell phone and go cover it! 90 percent of the people readng this blog are walking around with high caliber cameras in their pockets. There is no excuse if you feel something should be represented. You don't need a DSLR to cover an event.

Lowest risk: Virtual-only activities, events, and gatherings.

More risk: Smaller outdoor and in-person gatherings in which individuals from different households remain spaced at least 6 feet apart, wear cloth face coverings, do not share objects, and come from the same local area (e.g., community, town, city, or county).

Higher risk: Medium-sized in-person gatherings that are adapted to allow individuals to remain spaced at least 6 feet apart and with attendees coming from outside the local area.

Highest risk: Large in-person gatherings where it is difficult for individuals to remain spaced at least 6 feet apart and attendees travel from outside the local area.

I completely understand why someone would assume the risks of attending marches/demonstrations/events to support the cause of trans rights (or for that matter, supporting anyone suffering great injustice - ie BLM etc).

But it's not cool to ignore or mis-state those risks.

There are no statistics of Covid victims that break out the number who are transpeople. But there's no reason to think they're less likely to succumb to the disease than non-trans. If we assume the commonly quoted rate that 0.3% of US adults are trans, then that would be roughly 350 transfolk dying of Covid so far this year (which is only halfway done).

Various trans advocacy sites state that in the 12 months of 2018 there were 36 transpeople who are known to have been killed as a result of hate crime. That's a 20:1 difference!

(Btw, the numbers are even harsher for other groups - the number of people abused/killed by police violence should make every American sick to our stomachs and hopping mad, but at present rates it would take many decades of police abuse to equal the number of people being killed by Covid so far this year, regardless of skin color).

Covid has killed more than 1 out of every 3000 Americans in just six months.

Imo, anyone who believes that they're not significantly raising their risk of infection by attending a march or demonstration - regardless of mask wearing or whether its sunny out - is misled. The research supporting the idea that outside transmission is rare comes from a single, China-based, non-peer reviewed study (all of those are poor indicators of reliability). That study was looking at a highly controlled - certainly non-demonstrating! - population. (and btw, those researchers considered transmission during travel on mass transit and in vehicles to be 'inside transmission'!)

Demonstrate against injustice, show solidarity with the causes you support. But I think you shouldn't lie to yourself about the risks you are assuming when you do so, for both yourself and for others in your life.