In the Bay Area and across the country, we re nearly 10 months into COVID restrictions. Some of us are skin-starved, many of us even love-starved. No hugs, no spooning, no sex, no friends and no family.
It s a lot to deal with, but the truth is, many of us felt lonesome even before the pandemic pushed us further into isolation. Getting what we truly need is always a challenge, so how are we coping now?
To find out, Out in the Bay producer Truc Nguyen got intimate with Bay Area residents.
Avery Hines is originally from Detroit, Michigan, and a chef at San Francisco s Walden House, which serves clients with mental health and substance use disorder issues. He lives with his girlfriend in Oakland and they re both polyamorous. While they re both using apps to get to know people, Hines misses having other intimate connections with people, and it s not necessarily a sexual thing.