"HIV IS a gay disease" WTF?!

[Squirt]

Your statistics were worldwide. The straight HIV infections of the undeveloped world offset the fact that HIV is primarily a gay disease in western countries.

That's not true, the statistics for sub-Saharan Africa offset the straight HIV statistics that's why I didn't include them.. there 58% of women have HIV/AIDS.

Also in 2005 alone over 1,100,000 people immigrated from other countries to the U.S. SOURCE

But since you feel that America is not part of the world then I'll only reference American statistics. 77% of those living with HIV/AIDS in America are men.. of that percentage 42% of men with HIV/AIDS in America are straight. 33% of all HIV/AIDS cases are women of which 63% were exposed through HETEROSEXUAL contact and no known percentage through Lesbian (Gay) sex. SOURCE

So why on earth do you think HIV/AIDS in America is a Gay disease? That opinion isn't based on fact, unless you discount 42% of heterosexual men with HIV/AIDS in America and All the women living with HIV/AIDS in America which account for 33% of all cases.

HIV/AIDS is a virus that's transmitted through unprotected sex.

Anyone in the world can get HIV/AIDS through unprotected sex, unless you're a Lesbian having exclusively Lesbian sex.

Why does everyone make a fuss over not being able to give blood anyway?

It's just another thing that ignorance stolen from the Gay community.

Imagine if you were told that, for whatever reason, your kind of people were no longer allowed to spit, just because you were you. Makes you want to spit doesn't it?

I recommend Gay men donate blood and lie about their sexual history because it just might be that you save anothers life in the GLBT community.

[Dzinerbear]

I think -- I hope -- what they're trying to do is to re-sensitive gay men to HIV and AIDS. I was around when GRID first surfaced, which later became known as HIV, and through the 80s and early 90s, I lost a great many friends. But since the development of anti-virals and other treatments, a whole generation of gay men have come into their own not ever knowing a single person who has died of AIDS.

There's a great many people who think the drugs are the cure, so for younger gay men there doesn't appear to be a crisis. And with the onset of crystal meth use in our community, infection rates in gay men are definitely on the rise.

Given those points, I understand what they're trying to do; however, I agree with most here that it's going to have a negative effect on non-gay people who will end up thinking, once again, that they're immune.

Cheers
Michael

[FriendV]

I cant justify these ads in any way. In Canada ads like this, whoever posted them (gvmnt, gay comunity, ngo)would be illegal, and subject to quick legal action and removal.
We do have extensive ad campaigns to prevent the spread of HIV in Canada, but ours are based on facts, educating, as well as bringing attention to the cause and fear to the hearts of unsuspecting voters. :santa: :paco: :santa:

[Xstr8guy]

I don't think it's a stupid rule at all. It is my understanding that HIV can take a number of months to show up in blood testing after infection.

Ok. Then why the ban on men who have had gay sex since 1977?? A straight man who has ANAL sex with a PROSTITUTE only has to wait 12 months after such an encounter before he can give blood. HIV can be detected within one month after infection using the Western Blot test and other tests need only 6 months. Can't gay men be trusted to answer honestly on a questionaire but straight men having anl sex with prostitutes are?! To me, this is discrimination!

Let me ask you this. If you were in an accident and could choose to receive the blood of a straight man or a gay man, which blood would you pick?

What a ridiculous question. I don't care where the blood came from. I'm not going to get tranfusions in the maze at the White Swallow Bathhouse just like I'm not getting transfusions in Heroin Alley! I'm still putting my trust in some schmo who fills out a form at the Red Cross. And I pretty darned sure that allowing gay men to answer honestly AND donate blood will not increase my chances of contracting HIV.

[Dzinerbear]

Let me ask you this. If you were in an accident and could choose to receive the blood of a straight man or a gay man, which blood would you pick?

What an absolute ridiculous thing to say. Do you know how many "straight" men I've had sex with in my 44 years on this planet? Do you know how many have ever asked me if I was positive?

Good grief.

Michael

[shaun]

Dzinerbear... you and I might be the only ones here who remember GRID - and how frightening AIDS was when it first surfaced.

Beat up on me all you want folks.... but I GET why they are doing this ad this way. I support them and I think that - in light of rising infection rates in the gay community - a good swift kick in the ass is called for.

I remember the total and complete denial of the gay community in the 1980's in San Francisco, where epidemiolgists were trying to close the bathhouses, and the gay community was screaming "discrimination" - I remember when Act-Up broke away from thier original mission, and started claiming that there was no such thing as AIDS, and that AIDS was being caused by the early anti-retrovirals - simply because they felt that limiting the right of gay men to fuck anybody anywhere at anytime was the same thing as going back into the closet.

I also remember very well when Larry Kramer was kicked out of the GMHC and virtually exiled from the larger gay community for trying to insist that, in light of a deadly sexually transmitted disease, gay men might choose to NOT screw around quite so much.

Yeah - so AIDS is NOT a Gay Disease. Whatever. I lost scores of friends and aquaintances, including several very close friends. And they were all gay. Any of us over the age of 40 got to live through this.... watching our friends die by the score.

And now, on this very board, we have webmasters advocating barebacking as a viable fetish. We have a new population of young gay men who honestly think they will never die. We have bathhouses aplenty, and a slow sure return to the same party lifestyle that cost so many lives the first time around.

Yes, AIDS is not a "gay" disease, but in the US urban areas, 3-5 percent of the population accounts for nealy 70% of the infections.

So, at which point might it be suggested that the community most severly impacted by this disease start taking effective action? Or is any call to gay men to take responsibility for thier own health and the health of the community equal to homophobia?

Denial and accusations of homophobia marked the first round of the fight against AIDS in the 80's, and that denial cost many people I cared deeply about thier lives.

[XXXWriterDude]

I don't think it's a stupid rule at all. It is my understanding that HIV can take a number of months to show up in blood testing after infection.

Let me ask you this. If you were in an accident and could choose to receive the blood of a straight man or a gay man, which blood would you pick?

Whoever's was readily available to me to save my frickin' life!!!!!

[marcjacob]

News Flash, straight people get aids too. This rule is discriminant and serves no purpose.

[XXXWriterDude]

Dzinerbear... you and I might be the only ones here who remember GRID - and how frightening AIDS was when it first surfaced.

Beat up on me all you want folks.... but I GET why they are doing this ad this way. I support them and I think that - in light of rising infection rates in the gay community - a good swift kick in the ass is called for.

I remember the total and complete denial of the gay community in the 1980's in San Francisco, where epidemiolgists were trying to close the bathhouses, and the gay community was screaming "discrimination" - I remember when Act-Up broke away from thier original mission, and started claiming that there was no such thing as AIDS, and that AIDS was being caused by the early anti-retrovirals - simply because they felt that limiting the right of gay men to fuck anybody anywhere at anytime was the same thing as going back into the closet.

I also remember very well when Larry Kramer was kicked out of the GMHC and virtually exiled from the larger gay community for trying to insist that, in light of a deadly sexually transmitted disease, gay men might choose to NOT screw around quite so much.

Yeah - so AIDS is NOT a Gay Disease. Whatever. I lost scores of friends and aquaintances, including several very close friends. And they were all gay. Any of us over the age of 40 got to live through this.... watching our friends die by the score.

And now, on this very board, we have webmasters advocating barebacking as a viable fetish. We have a new population of young gay men who honestly think they will never die. We have bathhouses aplenty, and a slow sure return to the same party lifestyle that cost so many lives the first time around.

Yes, AIDS is not a "gay" disease, but in the US urban areas, 3-5 percent of the population accounts for nealy 70% of the infections.

So, at which point might it be suggested that the community most severly impacted by this disease start taking effective action? Or is any call to gay men to take responsibility for thier own health and the health of the community equal to homophobia?

Denial and accusations of homophobia marked the first round of the fight against AIDS in the 80's, and that denial cost many people I cared deeply about thier lives.

I definitely see your points, Shaun, but I think there was another way to go about this that could have been just as shocking without pinpointing AIDS as a gay disease. Of course it is; we all know that. But it's also a straight disease and a black disease and an Asian disease and a bisexual disease.

I think it's important for our community to take responsibility for the continued spread of the disease, but I don't think we should be backing ourselves into another corner where we are the ones blamed for bringing it into the world.

[Squirt]

STDs Estimated Number of Pregnant Women
Bacterial vaginosis 800,000
Herpes simplex 800,000
Chlamydia 200,000
Trichomoniasis 80,000
Gonorrhea 40,000
Hepatitis B 40,000
HIV 8,000
Syphilis 8,000

source

Wow straight American women and their babies infected with Gay diseases must be a miracle.

[shaun]

I don't think we should be backing ourselves into another corner where we are the ones blamed for bringing it into the world.

I understand that... but.... the people who believe that gay men brought "AIDS into the world" ALREADY believe it anyway. And if it weren't for AIDS, they would hate you for some other reason.

We can only do so much to fight ignorance and intolerance, and even with the epidemic, we have come a very very long way - in a very short amount of time.

Of course AIDS is not a "gay disease" - but the epidemiolgy in the US is this: The NUMBER ONE RISK FACTOR is men having unprotected sex with other men. The information is out there - the fact that there are so many new infections in the gay community is inexcusable, and something MUST be done about that. Saying that straight girls get AIDS too isn't doing a DAMN thing to stop aids in the gay community.

According to the GMHC, these are the stats in 2002

Men who have sex with men 368,971
Injection drug users 201,326
Men who have sex with men and inject drugs 51,293
Hemophilia/coagulation disorder 5,292
Heterosexual contact 90,131

Estimates of the gay population in the US, based on demographic reports puts the gay and lesbian population at about 1.5%, or around 4.3 Million people. Even adjusting that for undercounting, lets be generous and say there are a total of 3 million men who sleep with other men. And looking at the rest of the population, roughly esitmated there are 200 Million people between the ages of 16-64.

So - there are 197 million people who engage in heterosexual contact, and 3 million men who engage in homosexual contact - yet the AIDS rate among men who sleep with other men is 4x higher than the rate of people who aquire aids strictly though heterosexual contact with no other risk factors.

Epidemiolgically speaking - in the US ---- the makers of this advertisement have a point. The rate of infection for heterosexual contact is about 0.05%. The rate of infection for homosexual contact is about 13%. (If we use the govt figures of 1.5 percent of the population being gay, meaning about 2.2 million gay men, the rate is nearly 20%!)

Reasonable public policy could nearly eliminate infection among needle users (In Europe, you can buy syringes at the grocery store! It is beyond idiotic that you can't get needles in the US!). The non needle using aquistion of aids - while tragic - is low on a % basis.

The ONLY way to stop aids, within the gay community - is for everyone to STOP saying "yeah, but... in Africa" or "But what about the percentage of pregnant women...." and fight AIDS for the community, within the community. Because, generally speaking, you can't change a damn thing in this world until you accept responsibility for it (and please, understand, culpability and responsibility are very different things.)


I understand the fear that this Ad may further stigmatize gay men. But in order to end AIDS within the Gay community, it is imperative that the community itself take responsibility for the infection rate within its own ranks.

And if it takes an ad saying "AIDS is a Gay Disease - Own it" - and if that ad saves any lives, well - good on it.

[Squirt]

The ONLY way to stop aids, within the gay community - is for everyone to STOP saying "yeah, but... in Africa" or "But what about the percentage of pregnant women...." and fight AIDS for the community, within the community. Because, generally speaking, you can't change a damn thing in this world until you accept responsibility for it (and please, understand, culpability and responsibility are very different things.)

It's sounds like you're knowledgeable in your statistics so you will well know that, in America, women have the highest growing infection rate, yet we have ads claiming HIV/AIDS is a Gay disease, as more and more women are getting the disease, just as statistics are showing is happening in THE REST OF THE WORLD :uhoh:

The American knee jerk reaction to world crisis is to say we are different; we are immune, as far as diseases go any human host will do.

There is no community responsibility to accept regarding HIV/AIDS as personal behavior is what transmits the virus, not the Gay community.

HIV/AIDS is a non discriminate virus that anyone having unsafe sex can get. Taking personal responsibility regarding your sexual practices is totally different then a group of people "owning" a non discriminate disease, that's just stupid, no matter what your sexuality or what the disease is.

I understand the fear that this Ad may further stigmatize gay men. But in order to end AIDS within the Gay community, it is imperative that the community itself take responsibility for the infection rate within its own ranks.

That's like saying the African American community needs to take responsibility for HIV/AIDS. You do know that African Americans are the vast majority of those infected, yet you feel the way to "end" HIV/AIDS is for the Gay community to own it.

And if it takes an ad saying "AIDS is a Gay Disease - Own it" - and if that ad saves any lives, well - good on it.

It won’t save lives. It will make Gay men not want to identify with, or be a part of, the Gay community.

Messages to people in the Gay community promoting self love and positive self esteem will make them want to take personal responsibility and have safe sex NOT messages that say because you are Gay you have to own a disease.

[shaun]

Yes, AIDS is happening in the rest of the world. And yes, in the third world, in Africa, in Asia, it is happening by heterosexual transmission.

In the US, however, we still have an infection rate at somewhere between 5% and 10% of the gay male population, vs just 0.05% of the straight population.

And no, the vast majority of AIDS victims aren't black - they are white. However, AIDS is increasing in the black population at a greater rate.... and YES - The AFRICAN AMERICAN community NEEDS to take action.... because the needs of that particular popluation are different. It is NOT ok to be black and gay, and as a result, you have a huge amount of denial and men on the 'down low'. Furthermore, in the Gay community - blacks tend to be marginalized. Talk about a double whammy - no support at home because you're gay - and no support in the gay community, because you are black.

We've had 2 decades of AIDS activism based on the warm and fuzzy. 2 decades of "love yourself, wear a condom" - and because young gay men aren't living through the horror of watching thier loved ones die of dementia with huge Sarcomas all over thier body - they just aren't GETTING it!!!!!

I am SICK of this disease. I am sick of losing my friends. I am so over safe sex, I could scream. I mourn the fact that anyone under 40 never had the chance to have sex without a condom, without risking thier lives.

Yes. Women get AIDS. Yes, Blacks get AIDS. Yes, everyone needs to take personal responsibility. AIDS is a gay disease, is a myth. HIV is equal opportunity. BUT IN THE UNITED STATES, THE GAY COMMUNITY HAS BEEN HIT HARDEST OF ANY OTHER DEMOGRAPHIC BY ALL MEASURES - AND AS A PERCENTAGE, THE DIFFERENCES ARE EXTREME. And I - for one - and tired of losing beautiful young men to this disease.

I think, instead of warm fuzzy messages of self love and self respect, we should just make every young person spend 1-2 weeks in an AIDS hospice, because there aint nothing warm and fuzzy about dying from sex.

Finally - I'll say this: The Govt doesnt CARE about the gay community. They don't care about the black community. Current AIDS activism is failing - the new infection rate continues to rise. WE need to OWN this issue in our own back yards, because no one is getting out there and bringing the message home.