Crisis and Care: Queer Activist Responses to a Global Pandemic

by Adrian Shanker (Editor), Rea Carey (Foreword by)

Crisis and Care reveals what is possible when activists mobilize for the radical changes our society needs. In a time of great uncertainty, fear, and isolation, queer activists organized for health equity, prison abolition, racial justice, and more. Nobody who lived through the COVID-19 pandemic will soon forget the challenges, sacrifices, and incredible loss felt during such an uncertain time in history. Crisis and Care addresses not what happened during COVID-19, or why it happened, but rather how queer activists responded in real time. It considers the need to memorialize resiliency as well as loss, hope as well as pain, to remember the strides forward as well as the steps back. Activist contributors Zephyr Williams, Mark Travis Rivera, Jamie Gliksberg, Denise Spivak, Emmett Patterson, Omar Gonzales-Pagan, Kenyon Farrow, and more provide a radical lens through which future activists can consider effective strategies to make change, even or perhaps especially, during periods of crisis.

Praise

“Adrian Shanker has emerged in recent years as an urgent and prescient voice on matters concerning queer health. Crisis and Care: Queer Activist Responses to a Global Pandemic is timely, important and shares a message we ignore at our own peril. The response to COVID-19 from LGBTQ communities is informed by our own experience with a deadly pandemic made vastly worse by poor presidential leadership. Our lived experience over the past 40 years has valuable lessons for how we should be addressing today’s viral threats.”
—Sean Strub, author of Body Counts: A Memoir of Politics, Sex, AIDS, and Survival

“How did we respond? That is the central question in Crisis and Care. Lots of books will look at COVID-19, but this book looks at how LGBTQ activists responded to one of the most challenging moments of our lives.”
—Igor Volsky, author of Guns Down: How to Defeat the NRA and Build a Safer Future with Fewer Guns

“In Crisis and Care, Adrian Shanker and the contributing authors make the bold case that we are defined not by the bad things that happen in our society, but by how our community responds.”
—Robyn Ochs, editor of Bi Women Quarterly

“Crisis and Care tells stories about Queer people’s experiences during COVID-19 that needs to be memorialized as another example of our community’s resiliency in times of crisis. This book presents the stories of how LGBTQ community members came together to help one another not only survive the pandemic, but also our determination to thrive despite the failures of the federal government’s response.”
—David Heitstuman, executive director of the Sacramento LGBT Community Center

Genres: Queer, Social Justice, Nonfiction, Activism, LGBT, Essays, Transgender

112 pages, Paperback

Published August 16, 2022

About the author

Adrian Shanker is an award-winning activist and organizer whose career has centered on advancing progress for the LGBT community. He has worked as an arts fundraiser, labor organizer, marketing manager, and served as President of Equality Pennsylvania for three years before founding Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center in Allentown, PA, where he serves as executive director. An accomplished organizer, Adrian has led numerous successful campaigns to advance LGBT progress through municipal nondiscrimination and relationship recognition laws and laws to protect LGBT youth from conversion therapy. A specialist in LGBT health policy, he has developed leading-edge health promotion campaigns to advance health equity through behavioral, clinical, and policy changes.

Reviews

[Andrew Eder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ummmmm it was fine? I guess not what I was expecting? I wanted something a little more light and funny and positive but it was just a collection of good things that Queer people did during the COVID-19 pandemic. Which is great and I’m glad a book exists outlining some of those achievements but it read more like a list of things done as opposed to telling the story of HOW. And then the challenge of making it entertaining.

[Deana Ayers · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know what this collection of essays was trying to be, but it missed the mark for me. So many of the essays were already expressing that 2021 was post-pandemic, despite the fact that it's now 2023 and COVID is still disabling and killing people. Outside of that, I wasn't sure what to get out of many of the essays. They either felt too distant from actual people's experiences, too short to glean anything from, or too white to relate to my existence. I think there were some great lines throughout, but I just wanted this to be something it never intended to be.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very brief, but engaging. Heartwarming to see how the queer, disabled, and BIPOC community came together to struggle against injustice and advocate for themselves in spite of a society that actively goes out of its way to marginalize them.

[Aian · Rating 3 out of 5]

maybe more like 2.5 / 5 stars

the cover and title drew me in. i was very curious to hear more stories about queer activism centering care throughout the pandemic.

overall it was underwhelming. the work done was and is great across the communities, but this collection wasn't it. i also couldn't get past how a number of writers took that "covid is over" / "post-pandemic" stance. i think framing could have been better to specifically focus on quarantine. regardless, covid still continues to impact our communities so negatively, especially now that so many people, including queer and trans communities, have stopped mitigation practices

the essays that i enjoyed the most were: Breathing in Solidarity by Zephyr Williams; Queers, Covid-19 and Medicare for All by James McMaster; and Reopening the Past or Reimagining the Future? by Adrian Shanker

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fine. I like the idea of a book about the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic that were specific to queer people and how those challenges were confronted, but this collection of essays was underwhelming. Some essays were more engaging than others. While I see the value in having different authors' voices contribute to the discussion as they are able to address a wider range of topics as well as how queerness intersects with other parts of identity such as race and disability, I think I would have preferred the information to be presented in a singular style rather than hit-or-miss essays. While I was disappointed I appreciate what this book was trying to do and the stories within have given me even more reasons to be proud to be a part of such a resilient community.

[Eli · Rating 4 out of 5]

An okay series of essays on queer activism and the pandemic. Some essays were more interesting than others and I would definitely read more of. Some of them just had statistics which I personally found overwhelming.

Overall though, each essay lit a beacon that desperately needs to be seen: community is everything and justice is community.

The pandemic (which is still ongoing despite what the world media/governments say) showed us the massive issues with healthcare, not just in the US. The global north continued to oppress the global south, as always.

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was not what I was expecting and I can’t say I completely know what it was trying to do. The selected essays often treated the pandemic as though it has already ended. I appreciated being able to see what the queer community has accomplished during the pandemic, but I wanted more from the essays. There were many times where I was left asking what the point was of the essay I just read. Some of the essays had some solid information, but even ones I enjoyed I still felt could have been expanded on with a “so what” explanation and/or action items.

[Alan Oliveira · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had hoped for more depth in the essays. The focus on the achievements of the LGBTQ+ community and activists during the pandemic was inspiring, and I appreciated seeing the tangible outcomes of their hard work and perseverance. However, I expected a more vibrant and detailed narrative with specific, personal stories. Instead, the essays felt too generalized, which made it harder to connect with the experiences shared in the book.

[Luce · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to admit I skimmed most of this book. As a collection of short essays some were of course more interesting than others. But many were dull and didn’t really say much on any topics. The most interesting one I found was the toxic masculinity essay although the inferences and research provided I feel were easily criticised. Interesting idea for a book but didn’t quiet meet the mark

[Deadria Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very compelling essays from lgbt folks on how the community was affected during Covid 19.