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I got married last month, and it was the most fabulous party of my life.
Ezlan Powers
Many people are willing to risk COVID on their wedding day, but my now-spouse and I were not.
I had the luck and privilege of avoiding catching COVID until last spring.
So from the jump, we knew we were planning a COVID-cautious event.
Ezlan Powers
We arent supposed to go through a pandemic alone.
Despite known COVID risks, we wanted an in-person wedding.
As humans, we crave company and community.
This is perhaps truer than ever in the third year of a pandemic.
Its a lonely time to be a person who still cares about avoiding constant reinfections.
If an individualistic approach to a pandemic seems counterintuitive, thats because it is.
The shift away from you protect me, I protect you is no accident, in my opinion.
It can even work to dilute the efficacy of the COVID-19 policies in those places, the research shows.
COVID protocols are an act of community care.
We were showing care for our family and friendsand asking for it in return.
My spouse and I also tested every day of our wedding weekendsome days more than once.
(Vendors also masked both indoors and outdoors.)
And our reception, including the cocktail hour and dinner, was held on an open-air rooftop.
Others, like our ability to get new omicron-specificbivalent boosters10 days before the wedding, were pure luck.
That was the tradeoff we made.
Of our 100 potential guests, two people were unwilling to test.
Three didnt attend despite testing negative because they had either symptoms or a known COVID exposure.
Two more didnt come because they tested positive.
To be clear, these mitigation measures did noteliminateall risk of COVID-19 transmission.
Guaranteeing a zero-COVID wedding would have meant holding the entire event over Zoom.
Queer organizers are some of the best models of community care.
Queer communities model a kind of care and mutual responsibility that I strive for.
Community care is about leaning on othersand trusting them to come through.
But this renders the safety measures wecancontrol that much more impactful.
