AIDS Casts A Shadow Over Gay Marriage Victory

New York Times:

ON the evening of June 24, Steve Mendelsohn celebrated in the street with his friends and nearly a thousand other supporters of same-sex marriage outside the Stonewall Inn, the storied gay bar in the West Village.

The setting was nothing if not appropriate: In 1969, a riot at the Stonewall would make the bar forever synonymous with the awakening of the modern gay rights movement in America.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[BacSi]

06:47 PM on 01/04/2012

http://shanghaiist.com/2011/07/12/one_in_three_hiv_cases_in_china_att.php

And in China 1 out of 3 HIV DX is now MSM.

A MSM in China is 88 times more likely than the general population to get a DX of HIV

Exactly when will the MSM community world wide insist on safe sex?

[BacSi]

06:39 PM on 01/04/2012

August 30, 2011

High HIV Rate Persists Among MSM in India
Although India has succeeded in reducing its HIV rate by 50 percent overall in the past decade, a high HIV rate persists among men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender people, Agence France Press (AFP) reports. The National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) estimates that 7.3 percent of MSM are HIV positive, compared with 0.31 percent of the general population.

From poz.com

And some will bury their heads in the sand and claim that HIV is not a special problem for the MSM community---------these do more harm than the homophobes

[Atwill]

01:56 PM on 01/02/2012

This is so stupid. you might as well say "Abused wives cast a shadow over straight maraige."

[crosshatchaz]

03:12 PM on 01/02/2012

There isn't even the slightest comparison.

[Atwill]

04:13 PM on 01/02/2012

thank you , just my point

[Michele Bennington]

12:12 PM on 01/02/2012

I lived in SF when the pandemic hit the City. I have been working, volunteering and advocating in this arena ever since. I too have quit counting the number of people lost because of HIV.

And I look at the friends who have been long term survivors of HIV and how they view their quality of life. Particularly since we have lost generations of people in our various communities because of this virus.

And we need to be very careful about how we characterize the risk, and categorize the impact of HIV. As Atwill so clearly stated, everyone is at risk of contracting HIV.

Yes, we lost many gay men, whole communities of men, and not just white, to HIV in the 80's and 90's. But other communities were/are heavily impacted by HIV, and this message, unfortunately is still not getting out.

[BacSi]

03:24 PM on 01/02/2012

Yes everyone can. But everyone does not. There are specific risks that mean that people in certain communities such as the MSM community are at great risk if they have unprotected sex.

If everyone was at equal risk MSM who comprise 4% of the US population would not account for 61% of the new HIV cases in the US.

People need to deal with the real world and the real risks out there. Not the world based on some theory. Deal with the facts.

Not everyone is at equal risk. Not remotely close.

Good for you on your vol work. Well done.

[Michele Bennington]

04:40 PM on 01/02/2012

Yes, MSM has a higher rate of HIV in this country, when I used the term pandemic, I assumed that it would translate into global, as this is a global issue...my bad.

And in this country I will stand by everyone is at risk. A big part of the problem for prevention is that this started out being called the "gay disease", so many thought they were not at risk because they didn't identify as gay. This persisted well into the late 90's. Meanwhile it became popular to describe the "new faces of AIDS as being African American. All the while ignoring the risk factor of stigma.

If, in the "real world" we do not de-stigmatize HIV, make it a routine test in Community Health, your stats will be meaningless.

As for volunteering save your chops. We did it because no one else would do it...starting with the medical field all the way to undertakers.

[DavidEm]

09:42 AM on 01/02/2012

I really related to this article.

I lost my best friend, two partners, and over 70 other friends. That's when I stopped counting.

Younger gay men act like they've never heard of such loss if I ever go into it with them. So much for historical memory.

It was truly like living through a war, but one which most of the surrounding society wasn't being affected by and didn't care about.

The irony is that I still HIV-, having consistently practiced safe sex all this time---at least since 1983---and find now that I cannot deal with HIV in a primary relationship again. Some guys who haven't been through what I've been through have the nerve to call that prejudice.

[StrawHat]

04:17 PM on 01/02/2012

I am so very sorry for your loss and I understand perfectly why you wouldn't want to go through that again.

What a terrible nightmare those early years were, before we knew what was going on, how to deal with the virus, how infectious it was, etc.

ALL young people should be learning about this in school -- but too often the young think they're invulnerable. "Same as it ever was..."

[DavidEm]

01:13 PM on 01/06/2012

Thank you.

[loveO]

03:31 AM on 01/02/2012

I don't understand how people can say separate church from state but then try and define marriage.

Everyone should have a domestic partnership and be treated equally under the law regardless of gender, and leave marriage to the individual churches.

[Angel1999]

12:33 PM on 01/02/2012

Sounds reasonable except that most religious groups are not going to allow that to happen. As long as the status quo exists, then it has to be marriage for everybody.

[David Silvey]

03:22 PM on 01/02/2012

I have never met anyone who favored denying Gays rights, including the right of marriage that was not do so at the behest of relligion of one kind or another. To mention AIDS in connection with this is irrevelant as you can get. It is also just another Red Herring.
Don't forget: If the church was not restrained by secular law, they would still be burning people at the stake. Power in their hands is always ill used.

[Atwill]

09:28 PM on 01/01/2012

Aids has nothing to do with being gay. Anyone, straight or gay can get HIV and Aids from unpotected sex and dirty needles. anyone. HIV does not understand straight from gay.

[BacSi]

01:50 PM on 01/02/2012

MSM account for 4% of the US population according to CDC yet account for 61% of the new HIV cases in the US.

That is the problem. Not the eye sight of the HIV virus. Nor its ability to tell gay from straight.

AIDS and HIV sadly has a lot to do with being gay or a MSM at least in the US and other developed countries.

Who says so? The data on where the new infections comes from.

[StrawHat]

04:26 PM on 01/02/2012

Bareback = HIV is the lesson that young people continue to be unwilling to hear.

[Atwill]

04:27 PM on 01/02/2012

and that is because those people are not having safe sex or are using needles. but so what? That does not mean it is a gay virus. and the gay population is higher then 4%. probably higher then 10%, if all gays came out of the closet.

[Venmaker1]

06:58 PM on 01/01/2012

A good reminder of how the events of one's life can impact you for years.