Dallas Southern Pride announced this week that they have cancelled Black Pride Weekend events normally scheduled in the beginning of fall due to concern over increasing monkeypox infections.
“Out of an abundance of caution for the health and safety of the wider community, as the transmission rate of monkeypox continues to rise, the Dallas Southern Pride Black Pride Weekend 2022 event planning committee, including Abounding Prosperity Inc., a health service organization, has decided to postpone its Black Pride weekend activities scheduled to take place September 29-October 1. Dallas Southern Pride plans to reconvene by hosting a holiday themed weekend of events beginning December 17th.”
According to statistics presented by the Dallas County Public Health Department, there are currently 677 cases of monkeypox in Dallas County. Ten cases are among women, and the rest are men. The racial breakdown is: white (124), Black (229), Hispanic (127), Asian or Pacific Islander (13), other (43), and unknown (141).
Read more about Monkeypox here.
“For 25 years, people in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, especially those in the Black LGBTQ community, have trusted Dallas Southern Pride to provide safe and exciting Pride experiences. In the spirit of unity within the Black Pride community, Dallas Southern Pride still plans to support other clubs and promoter’s events happening in the city during its Black Pride weekend and encourages the community to celebrate safely by getting the monkeypox and COVID-19 vaccines before attending other activities during Black Pride Weekend in Dallas.”
Dallas Southern Pride is also working with Abounding Prosperity Inc. to ensure access to the monkeypox vaccine in an effort to “improve vaccine uptake among those who frequent Dallas Southern Pride events, especially those communities at the highest risk.”
Abounding Prosperity Inc. offers the monkeypox vaccines to eligible individuals at the HOPE Health and Wellness Center, 1619 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Vaccine clinic hours are Mondays and Thursdays from 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m.-6 p.m., and each first and third Saturday from 9 a.m.-1 p.m., while supplies last.
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