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Massachusetts lesbian bar faces boycott after lifting face mask rule
(www.thepinknews.com)
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this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2026
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The pandemic didn't end, the numbers just got low enough that most are willing to accept the remainder. Some communities have kept making the effort to stay away from the "acceptable losses" mentality which for those most immunocompromised may be their last lifeline to any in person contact with the rest of humanity.
So thanks for making a facetious joke I guess, but both sides of the issue in the article are real and there are no easy answers.
There were and likely always will be diseases out there that kill people or significantly degrade their freedom in life. It's not just Corona.
Yes, it's a bit sad it took this long for enough people to reconsider if that's ok or not. You're free to continue choosing and calibrating the acceptable death rate of your actions. Just don't be surprised when others do not choose the same rate you personally consider acceptable.
This place is literally closing.
You better not drive, or eat meat, or use mined resources.
Nobody is choosing a death rate. The acceptable death rate is obviously zero but live does not work that way. Come down from your high horse.
He said from his own high horse.
☝️"nO yOu!!!1!"
It's one night. You think it's acceptable for the community to hold the bar hostage like petulant children, for attempting to save itself from closing? The last owner is living in her car.
Numbers going down to levels comparable with numerous other diseases is very much the pandemic "ending." By your logic, the Black Death never went away. Some people still die from Yersinia pestis each year.
It's one thing to mask up in a real pandemic. It's another to advocate for a position where humanity will have to remained masked from now until the end of time.
That is call an endemic disease. Which is where most pandemics wind up. Diseases didn't suddenly come into existence in 2020, it is myopic to think that covid is exceptional. To the immunocompromised all transmittable diseases are dangerous and there are thousands of them that are endemic. The people claiming there is still a covid pandemic are uneducated conspiracy theorist on the same level of the anti-vaxxers.
Masks don't just inhibit the spread of Covid. They caused a precipitous drop in influenza, another potentially deadly disease, during the height of the pandemic. And other respiratory diseases were diminished as well. People with compromised immune systems were ironically safer in public places than any other time in their lives. Now these spaces which continue masking provide social interaction and emotional support for them and their friends. I didn't know it was a thing but I think it's great, I hope they make enough business to continue. I mask when I'm in indoor public places because my vulnerable spouse is recovering from their second pneumonia hospitalization this year, but I'm aware masks are better at containing germs than keeping them out, which is why the group effort is more effective.
Im sure getting people to practice basic hygiene would also help, people are nasty.
I don't know about you but I find wearing a mask helps remind me about washing my hands before touching my face.
I do think it could lower profits in a bar because you'd be more conscious about drinking and eating.
If you are were a mask while not sick, you are delusional. It is hygiene theater. Unless it is a properly fitted N95 mask you are doing nothing than giving yourself false security. Having a venue specifically for the immuno-compromised is fine and all but if there are not enough of them to keep the business afloat, boycotting them wont change that. Maybe having specific events hosted at the bar would work better than expecting everyone at all times to cater to a specific demographic. Also the sorts of people that dont wash their hands and cover their mouths with their elbows while coughing dont care and infact actively try to negate the efforts of others.
Who said it's not a well-fitting N95? I don't mask for appearances. It's snug around my nose so my glasses stay clear.
As for the bar, there's obviously a large supportive community or they wouldn't be trying to get the bar to continue the ongoing protocol, or their boycott wouldn't threaten the bar's finances. Anyone trying to negate the efforts is gonna regret angering the lesbians.
Obviously it's not large enough, or the bar wouldn't be going under.
I'm sorry, this your idea of being supportive? Throwing a tantrum and threatening because you don't get your way is support.
N95's are considered the best but even a cloth mask is actually better than no mask. Don't make perfection the enemy of good.
Cloth masks protect others from you, they do next to nothing to protect you from others.
Effectiveness of cloth face masks to prevent viral spread: a meta-analysis
Similarly COVID doesn't just spread COVID, it weakens the immune system in ways that permanently make people more vulnerable to other illnesses and more likely to develop autoimmune disorders. Many endemic diseases like flu are still seeing higher rates of hospitalisation than before.
Masks also cause a precipitous drop in being able to communicate in loud public spaces, and not inhaling your own saliva.