Skip to content Skip to search

Republish This Story

* Please read before republishing *

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. See our full guidelines for more information.

To republish, simply copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The 19th. Have questions? Please email [email protected].

— The Editors

Loading...

Modal Gallery

/
Sign up for our newsletter

Menu

  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships
    • From the Collection

      Changing Child Care

      Illustration of a woman feeding a baby a bottle
      • 1 in 4 parents report being fired for work interruptions due to child care breakdowns

        Chabeli Carrazana · February 2
      • Washington, D.C., offers financial relief to local child care workers

        Orion Rummler · September 20
      • As climate change worsens hurricane season in Louisiana, doulas are ensuring parents can safely feed their babies

        Jessica Kutz · May 5
    • From the Collection

      Next-Gen GOP

      Illustration of a woman riding an elephant
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • A banner year for Republican women

        Amanda Becker · November 11
      • Republican women could double representation in the U.S. House

        Amanda Becker · November 4
    • From the Collection

      On The Rise

      Illustration of three women marching
      • Can Cheri Beasley build a winning coalition in North Carolina?

        Candice Norwood · October 11
      • Los Angeles has never elected a woman mayor. Karen Bass hopes to change that.

        Nadra Nittle · September 8
      • Judge J. Michelle Childs is confirmed to D.C. appeals court

        Candice Norwood · July 20
    • From the Collection

      Pandemic Within a Pandemic

      Illustration of four people marching for Black Lives Matter with coronavirus as the backdrop
      • Some LGBTQ+ people worry that the COVID-19 vaccine will affect HIV medication. It won’t.

        Orion Rummler · November 23
      • Why are more men dying from COVID? It’s a complicated story of nature vs. nurture, researchers say

        Mariel Padilla · September 22
      • Few incarcerated women were released during COVID. The ones who remain have struggled.

        Candice Norwood · August 17
    • From the Collection

      Portraits of a Pandemic

      Illustration of a woman wearing a mask and holding up the coronavirus
      • For family caregivers, COVID is a mental health crisis in the making

        Shefali Luthra · October 8
      • A new database tracks COVID-19’s effects on sex and gender

        Shefali Luthra · September 15
      • Pregnant in a pandemic: The 'perfect storm for a crisis'

        Shefali Luthra · August 25
    • From the Collection

      The 19th Explains

      People walking from many articles to one article where they can get the context they need on an issue.
      • The 19th Explains: What we know about Brittney Griner’s case and what it took to get her home

        Candice Norwood, Katherine Gilyard · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why the Respect for Marriage Act doesn’t codify same-sex marriage rights

        Kate Sosin · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why baby formula is still hard to find months after the shortage

        Mariel Padilla · December 1
    • From the Collection

      The Electability Myth

      Illustration of three women speaking at podiums
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • Stepping in after tragedy: How political wives became widow lawmakers

        Mariel Padilla · May 24
      • Do term limits help women candidates? New York could be a new testing ground

        Barbara Rodriguez · January 11
    • From the Collection

      The Impact of Aging

      A number of older people walking down a path of information.
      • From ballroom dancing to bloodshed, the older AAPI community grapples with gun control

        Nadra Nittle, Mariel Padilla · January 27
      • 'I'm planning on working until the day I die': Older women voters are worried about the future

        Mariel Padilla · June 3
      • Climate change is forcing care workers to act as first responders

        Jessica Kutz · May 31
    • From the Collection

      Voting Rights

      A series of hands reaching for ballots.
      • Connecticut voters approved early voting. Here’s how their new secretary of state wants to make it happen.

        Barbara Rodriguez · February 13
      • Women lawmakers in Minnesota are in the vanguard of the democracy movement

        Barbara Rodriguez · February 3
      • Election workers believe in our system — and want everyone else to, too

        Barbara Rodriguez, Jennifer Gerson · November 8

    View all collections

  • Explore by Topic

    • 19th Polling
    • Abortion
    • Business & Economy
    • Caregiving
    • Coronavirus
    • Education
    • Election 2020
    • Election 2022
    • Election 2024
    • Environment & Climate
    • Health
    • Immigration
    • Inside The 19th
    • Justice
    • LGBTQ+
    • Military
    • Politics
    • Press Release
    • Race
    • Sports
    • Technology

    View All Topics

Home
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

The 19th Represents Summit

Don’t miss our biggest event of 2023!

Register Today

Become a member

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

Students walk around the UCLA campus.
Students walk around the UCLA campus. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images)

Education

To contain monkeypox, colleges must step up outreach to LGBTQ+ students, experts say

Multiple colleges and universities have reported monkeypox cases, but the resources they have to fight the virus aren’t equal.

Nadra Nittle

Education reporter

Nadra Nittle

Published

2022-09-21 13:07
1:07
September 21, 2022
pm

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

When monkeypox cases began to rise over the summer, scientists at the University of California, San Diego, experimented with a way to reduce community spread — surveilling wastewater for the virus just as they have for COVID-19.

“You cannot trace it back to an individual,” said Smruthi Karthikeyan, an environmental engineer and postdoctoral researcher in UC San Diego’s Center for Microbiome Innovation. “We can say if someone’s infected in a building or not, but it doesn’t say Person X is infected. It reduces the stigma, especially for monkeypox; there’s a lot of stigma associated with testing for that. It’s much easier to get that message across, and it doesn’t feel targeted.” 

In 2022, nearly 24,000 monkeypox cases have been reported in the United States, with men who have sex with men making up the majority of those infected with the pathogen that belongs to the same family of viruses that causes smallpox. Monkeypox spreads via close contact, and concerns have been raised about the vulnerability of college students since they live in congregate settings — often swapping clothing, sharing beds and having sex with different partners. 

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

It’s unclear how many monkeypox cases there are on college campuses. As students began returning to class last month, White House representatives held meetings with college administrators about containing monkeypox at schools. Multiple universities, including Georgetown, University of Delaware, University of Pittsburgh and San Diego State have reported monkeypox cases. In California, which leads the nation with more than 4,600 monkeypox cases, about 7 percent of infections have occured in the college-age population.

Activists in the LGBTQ+ community say college health officials need to step up their outreach to queer students so these young people have the tools to protect themselves from monkeypox, which produces symptoms such as fever, rash and swollen lymph nodes lasting up to several weeks. 

Limiting the spread of monkeypox on college campuses requires a multipronged approach, advocates for LGBTQ+ students say, one that focuses on science and messaging alike.

“There needs to be targeted campaigns and messaging to the communities that are impacted,” said Shane Windmeyer, executive director of Campus Pride, a national nonprofit working toward a safer college environment for LGBTQ+ students. “If this were targeting the general population, we [as a nation] would be doing much more on our college campuses. But the honest truth is that it’s targeting gay and bisexual men and trans women, so we’re doing less than what’s necessary to really have messaging and support [for] these populations as well as all college students.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that monkeypox cases have started to flatten, going from an average of 440 cases per day on August 16 to 170 cases per day on September 14. But the outbreak continues to pose risks. This month, Los Angeles County confirmed the nation’s first fatality due to monkeypox; the decedent was severely immunocompromised. In August, a Texan with monkeypox died, but it’s unclear if the virus was directly responsible. Monkeypox has also been found in infants and children, including those who attend K-12 schools.

As monkeypox cases drop nationally, they’re on the rise in communities of color, where vaccination rates are lower than they are in the White population. More than 540,000 vaccine doses, including 11,000 at Pride events, have been administered, but shots have largely gone to White people, according to the CDC. The White House has asked that $4.5 billion in a new government spending bill be used to secure monkeypox vaccines, perform testing and offer treatment, among other interventions. 

Due to the federal government’s limited stock of the monkeypox vaccine, higher education institutions may lack their own supply but can partner with local health departments so students can get immunized off campus. 

A person gets their monkeypox vaccine at a vaccination site in California.
A monkeypox vaccination site in Encino, California in September 2022 (Sarah Reingewirtz/Los Angeles Daily News/Getty Images)

Along with researchers who screen for monkeypox in wastewater , UC San Diego has a small supply of the vaccine to reduce virus spread. Some, but not all, of the nine UC campuses have vaccines in stock. 

“College campuses in general lack resources and support when it comes to the populations that are targeted, that being gay [and] bisexual men, trans women, along with other students,” Windmeyer said. “Monkeypox impacts everyone, but I would say they’re largely relying on their health centers that have, sometimes, no relationship with their LGBTQ+ students or very little relationship with their LGBTQ+ students.”

At the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), monkeypox outreach has addressed the LGBTQ+ community. With 1,839 cases as of September 16, Los Angeles leads California in monkeypox infections. In the spring, the Gay Sexuality and Social Policy Initiative (GSSPI) at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs launched a campaign to provide accurate information about monkeypox to gay and bisexual men while noting that anyone can contract the virus, to avoid the stigmatizing language used to discuss HIV when it first spread in the 1980s. In partnership with the Los Angeles LGBT Center, GSSPI created an infographic explaining monkeypox transmission, symptoms and interventions. Moreover, Ian Holloway, who leads GSSPI and the Hub for Health Intervention, Policy and Practice at UCLA Luskin, serves on the scientific advisory committee to the California Department of Public Health. He has emphasized that monkeypox outreach to men who have sex with men should be equitable, with a focus on queer men of color. 

Jorge Reyes Salinas, a spokesperson for Equality California, a statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, said many colleges have websites covering the basics of monkeypox — and little else. He’s disappointed that some institutions have minimized the risk of contracting the virus. The risk appears to be relative. According to an NPR analysis, women and heterosexual men had a 1 in 260,000 chance of developing monkeypox in August, while men who have sex with men had a 1 in 750 chance.  

In San Diego’s wastewater, the amount of monkeypox has declined. “It was steadily increasing,” Karthikeyan said. “Now it’s sort of plateauing.”

  • More from The 19th
    Details of a monkeypox vaccine
  • The 19th Explains: What to know about monkeypox and its symptoms
  • Experts debunk monkeypox myths as misinformation spreads
  • Prisons and jails are ‘potentially high-risk’ for monkeypox but won’t fall under a vaccine mandate

Monitoring monkeypox in the wastewater can be particularly beneficial when communities don’t have the resources to conduct mass testing. “Our wastewater with [COVID-19] started that way because there just weren’t enough tests in certain counties,” Karthikeyan said. 

While Salinas supports scientific interventions to contain monkeypox, he is especially interested in messaging and outreach. Ideally, he would like higher education institutions to partner with Pride or LGBTQ+ centers to educate students about monkeypox. In more rural parts of the state, where it may be difficult for vulnerable students to get immunized off campus without driving long distances, he would like colleges to organize pop-up vaccine clinics. But California State University (CSU), the nation’s largest university system with 23 campuses, does not have its own supply of monkeypox vaccine, according to spokesperson Toni Molle. 

“CSU campuses are being advised to work with state and local health authorities about vaccine availability, eligibility and locations,” Molle told The 19th. 

In the meantime, it is monitoring guidance from the California Department of Public Health and the CDC and sharing information with the CSU community about how monkeypox is transmitted and how to prevent infection.

“As more vaccine becomes available, campuses may be able to receive their own supply,” she said. In addition, the UC Office of the President has shared guidance with UC campuses about monkeypox that includes teaching campus health providers to recognize the signs and symptoms of monkeypox, and educating students and staff about the virus, its transmission and vaccination protocols, along with safer sex practices and risk factors. The guidance did not mention specific outreach to LGBTQ+ students.  

Windmeyer said that it’s also important for colleges and universities to raise monkeypox awareness on the social media platforms students frequent, such as TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram. UC San Diego’s Student Health and Well-Being center posted a monkeypox primer on Instagram over the summer. 

Beyond California, the University Health Services at the University of Texas at Austin has a webpage that breaks down the basics of monkeypox. It mentions stigma, stating that members of stigmatized communities may decline to get help when needed and members of non-stigmatized communities may forgo preventative measures because of presumed invulnerability to infection. Students who suspect they’ve contracted monkeypox can call a nurse advice line for guidance and testing services.

In a statement to The 19th, UT Austin spokesperson Shilpa Bakre said that the “university has mitigation protocols in place for communicable disease” and that “the risk to the broader campus community remains low.” To contain monkeypox, the university is providing public health education to the community, training health care providers and collaborating with key stakeholders on strategies to reduce the spread of monkeypox. She had no further comment when asked if UT Austin is conducting particular outreach to LGBTQ+ students.

Stories by experienced reporters you can trust and relate to.

Delivered directly to your inbox every weekday.

Please check your email to confirm your subscription!

Submitting…

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

At Georgetown University, which reported a presumptive monkeypox infection in June, the Public Health team is collaborating with the Student Health Center (SHC) and the Infectious Diseases Department at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital to manage suspected and confirmed monkeypox cases, according to a spokesperson. “The SHC is able to carry out the specific testing required to reach a diagnosis,” the spokesperson added. “We are also collaborating with the DC Department of Health.”

As some schools attempt to destigmatize monkeypox and educate students about the virus, others may largely ignore the virus’ existence or the students most vulnerable to it. This is the case at the nation’s religious colleges that openly discriminate against LGBTQ+ students, Windmeyer said. At those institutions, students may hesitate to ask officials for help in acquiring monkeypox immunizations or tests, let alone come forward with symptoms, because it may raise questions about their sexual orientation.  

The colleges and universities most likely to manage monkeypox best are those with a proven track record of working with LGBTQ+ students, Windmeyer said. 

“They are in the best position to do a really great job with messaging and to make sure that we have prevention measures such as ensuring that the vaccines reach those students that are the most impacted and that vaccines are readily available and at events, much like right now in several communities, you can get a monkeypox vaccination at a Pride festival,” Windmeyer said. “That should happen on college campuses too when it comes to prevention. It’s really about awareness and knowledge and vaccinations at this point.”

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

The 19th Represents Summit

Don’t miss our biggest event of 2023!

Register Today

Become a member

Up Next

Kelley Robinson speaks at a podium during a press conference following the Peace Walk in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

LGBTQ+

Kelley Robinson to be first Black, queer woman to lead Human Rights Campaign

Robinson, who comes to the LGBTQ+ civil rights organization from Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said her identities shape how she will approach the job.

Read the Story

The 19th
The 19th is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Our stories are free to republish in accordance with these guidelines.

  • Donate
  • Newsletter
  • Events
  • Search
  • Jobs
  • Fellowships
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Community Guidelines
  • Membership
  • Membership FAQ
  • Major Gifts
  • Sponsorship
  • Privacy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram