Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty
By the time the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released its monkeypox guidelines in July—warning men who have sex with men to avoid “skin-to-skin” contact, sharing cups, casual hookups, and to wash their hands “often”—gay men in NYC had already committed most of those offenses and more during Pride Month at the Members Only Club, an invite-only gay sex party in Hell’s Kitchen, one of the city’s most prominent gayborhoods.
“Hoes and gentlesluts, start your proud engines!” event organizers teased in a newsletter advertising a handful of “jockstrap or naked” parties for Pride weekend, including Jock Pride, Overtime After Hours, Proud Sluts and Ooz. Tickets are around $30 and attendees must submit a photo of themselves shirtless to be added to the mailing list.
An abundance of parties, a surge of tourists, a shortage of monkeypox vaccine doses, and some initial confusion over how to qualify for a shot, quickly made NYC a monkeypox infection hotspot as people began seeking treatment for their symptoms in early July. With monkeypox infections burning through social circles, many of the city’s most popular places for people to engage in gay sex took matters into their own hands and began shutting down.