Puerto Vallarta's LGBT center, SETAC, is helping to support workers in the tourist-dependent city who are struggling in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The resulting economic disaster shuttered businesses and forced many LGBTQs to move to Mexico City and other Mexican cities in search of work, said SETAC's executive director, Paco Arjona. "It's very expensive here," Arjona told the Bay Area Reporter last week. "Even with the tourists not coming, the rent is still expensive." The SETAC director added that for most, the loss of work is more concerning than the risk of contracting COVID-19. "They say they can easily die without food, but can survive with COVID," Arjona said.