Big Hearts Blog — Vaccine Equity

“People are dying. My loved ones are dying. But then other people are denying that it’s evening happening.”

This quote from our 2021 COVID-19 Community Survey could just as easily refer to the AIDS pandemic in its early days. As soon as COVID-19 hit, Out Boulder County knew we’d need to jump into action to save lives. We vowed to never let our community suffer in silence again.

It’s almost as difficult to forget these terrible times as it is to remember them — to remember how they upended our lives, made us feel alone and helpless, and especially to remember how many souls we lost. Too many, and many too young.

OBC has been fighting for equity in healthcare for LGBTQ+ communities since day one. Our founders were community members just like you who believed we all deserve dignity, respect, and to live life fully and authentically.

The COVID-19 Community Survey also taught us how to right the wrongs of the past. The LGBTQ+ community, and particularly LGBTQ+ communities of color, have long borne the brunt of (and the stigma from) such diseases. Many folks in the trans/nonbinary community have also experienced discrimination in medical care, resulting in hesitancy toward visiting healthcare providers. 

Medical and government distrust was rampant, and we quickly learned we’d need our community to protect our community.

As COVID raged on, OBC worked tirelessly and in partnership with local organizations serving communities of color to offer testing and vaccinations in safe, accessible, and culturally competent settings. The results speak for themselves: 4,849 COVID vaccine doses have been administered to date.

As MPOX began affecting our community shortly after COVID vaccines became available, OBC was ready — another 994 MPOX vaccines were administered through the same network of community care and connection we’d built for COVID vaccines. While we were at it, we decided to add influenza (798 doses) and tetanus (107 doses) to the list. Because we all deserve safety, and we all deserve to have our voices heard.

Make your voice heard by giving to OBC’s advocacy!

A huge thanks to all the Big Hearts who work every day to make our community safer. It takes all of us to make this kind of impact!