1:22 Gay Men In Florida Have HIV/AIDs

A new report from the Florida Department of Health suggests rates of HIV and AIDS among gay and bisexual men are not declining in the state as hoped.

In fact, the report estimated 1 in 22 gay and bisexual men in Florida were living with the virus last year, a rate far higher than any other group of people. In some areas, the numbers are even higher: 1 in 11 gay white men in Broward County were found to have HIV or AIDS last year, according to the report, while 1 in 12 gay Hispanic men in Miami-Dade County were living with the virus last year.

The least affected group in the state, according to Florida Department of Health officials, are white women, 1 in 1,625 of whom had the virus in 2006.

Although some AIDS activists question the validity of the report, they agree that the statistics are alarming all the same.

"Obviously, our programs are not working the way we would like," Lorenzo Robinson of the Palm Beach County Health Department, the state's coordinator for gay black men, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel following the report’s release.

Christopher Lacharite, an HIV patient and prevention coordinator at Compass, a gay organization in Palm Beach County, suggested there are many reasons some portions of the gay community ignore the warnings activists and experts have been trumpeting over the years.

"There's no gay man who doesn't know having unprotected sex can lead to HIV. But sometimes they ignore it, and that's what we have not been able to address," Lacharite told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

http://www.gaywired.com/article.cfm?section=66&id=17249

They are some crazy figures :eek:

Kind of makes you wonder if the State should have more safe sex commercials airing.

Regards,

Lee

These numbers make it even scarier to think about all the twink bareback porn being shot in Florida! I pray that what happened in the UK with the 3 kids getting HIV while filming bareback is not going to happen in Florida as well! When it does, all hell is going to break lose and everyone in the industry is going to end up being affected and hurt by it!

Living in Florida for most of my life, I can tell you that there are several factors involved in the high rate of infections here. First and foremost, Florida is a very transient state. There are new residents and "visitors" everyday. There is a veritable buffet of fresh tricks seven nights a week in the major tourist cities. This not only leads to an increased number of partners, but also an increased risk of infection. There is also a prevailing attitude of invincibility among the younger generations, gay, straight and bi. It seems that they have been hearing about HIV their whole young adult lives and they have become tired of hearing about it, so they ignore our pleas for safer sex practices. Then we move on to our large number of residents from outside the US that call Florida home. Many come from areas of the world where safe sex education is not a high ranking issue. Without the necessary information to protect themselves, they are susceptible to all matter of problems. So, between misinformation, the lack of information and the lack of desire to care about the information that is provided, I am not surprised at the numbers. We as a community can only do so much. We provide the information and guidance, but it is up to the individual to decide what they will do with that information. I only hope that the younger generations wake up and realize that there still isn't a cure for this monster and that they too are just as likely to catch it, before it's too late.