The Los Angeles LGBT Center has made it its mission to vaccinate the trans and non-binary community in a safe and festive space.
The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Anita May Rosenstein Campus was transformed with inviting music, balloons and tables filled with goodie bags to encourage the trans and non-binary community to get the Covid-19 vaccine.
For two consecutive Saturday evenings, the Center served as a vaccine site of a community-led initiative known as Vax to the Max tailored to members of the transgender and non-binary community who are among the most vulnerable to access quality health care.
The free vaccines were administered on a first come, first-served basis. No appointment was necessary. The clinic was held in partnership with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and Invisible Men, an organization that provides resources and support specifically for transmasculine individuals.
“It’s crucial that everybody gets vaccinated,” said Invisible Men volunteer Eliot Hutchins while helping out at the June 5 clinic. “This event is colorful and friendly—a good, safe place for people to do something that might be terrifying. As a trans person, I can tell you it’s so hard for us just to find welcoming spaces to start with.”
The May 29 and June 5 clinics resulted in 107 people receiving a vaccine shot. They had a choice of receiving the Pfizer vaccine, which requires a second shot three weeks later, or the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
