The Pandemic Gifted Me a Global Queer Community
I don’t have to worry about my appearance or strangers’ judgment. I’m limitless with my people.
Two days prior to me moving into a new apartment, the president of South Africa announced a 21-day, nationwide lockdown. My inner introvert was gleeful at the thought.
As the weeks went by, the reality of the severity of the pandemic began to sink in. I consumed Covid-19 news with my coffee in the morning and my anxiety swiftly jolted from mild to a generalized state of being. Living alone for the first time, I had no one to disprove my hypochondria and convince me that my shortness of breath was anxiety, and not a Covid-19 symptom. So I sought digital therapy with a pro bono psychologist and reached out to the LGBTQIA+ community.
At first, everyone was free all the time. Life as we knew it was cancelled. On video calls with friends, they explained how their universities and workplaces shut down, leaving them in a similar place of anxious uncertainty, boredom, and loneliness. My phone buzzed with news alerts and my heart sank at the announcement that South Africa’s lockdown would be far longer than 21 days. “Not such an introvert, after all,” I thought. Being stuck at home for the “foreseeable future” left us with two options: to restructure the idea of…
