Got AIDS? Probably your fault.
Well, so says George F. Will:
Yeah, having sex with your husband, currently the largest source of transmission in the world, is known to be pretty risky. Sounds like we should get rid of traditional marriage. Or, you know, empower women. Neither of those is what Will is talking about, though. No, he's probably getting at how dangerous gay sex is.
The slogans were meant to mobilize political support for spending public dollars on prevention efforts that arch-conservatives like George F. Will rallied against. It wasn't liberals' uber-PC ways that caused so many AIDS deaths, but moralistic freak-outs over guys 'doing it' that prevented an early, adequate response.
The problem was not that Reagan didn't blame the gays. The problem was that he waited five fucking years to even recognize there was a problem. You know what made the 80s (and therefore the following decades) more dangerous? Conservatives' queasiness with sex, hate of homosexuals, and their resultant disinterest in solving the AIDS crisis early on.
The 14th-century Black Death killed one-third of Europe's population, but it was in the air, food and water, so breathing, eating and drinking were risky behaviors. AIDS is much more difficult to acquire. Like other large components of America's health-care costs (e.g., violence, vehicular accidents, coronary artery disease, lung cancer), AIDS is mostly the result of behavior that is by now widely known to be risky.
Yeah, having sex with your husband, currently the largest source of transmission in the world, is known to be pretty risky. Sounds like we should get rid of traditional marriage. Or, you know, empower women. Neither of those is what Will is talking about, though. No, he's probably getting at how dangerous gay sex is.
The U.S. epidemic, which through 2004 had killed 530,000, could have been greatly contained by intense campaigns to modify sexual and drug-use behavior in 25 to 30 neighborhoods from New York and Miami to San Francisco. But early in the American epidemic, political values impeded public health requirements. Unhelpful messages were sent by slogans designed to democratize the disease -- "AIDS does not discriminate" and "AIDS is an equal opportunity disease."
The slogans were meant to mobilize political support for spending public dollars on prevention efforts that arch-conservatives like George F. Will rallied against. It wasn't liberals' uber-PC ways that caused so many AIDS deaths, but moralistic freak-outs over guys 'doing it' that prevented an early, adequate response.
By 1987, when President Ronald Reagan gave his first speech on the subject, 20,798 Americans had died, and his speech, not surprisingly, did not mention any connection to the gay community. No president considers it part of his job description to tell the country that the human rectum, with its delicate and absorptive lining, makes anal-receptive sexual intercourse dangerous when HIV is prevalent.
The problem was not that Reagan didn't blame the gays. The problem was that he waited five fucking years to even recognize there was a problem. You know what made the 80s (and therefore the following decades) more dangerous? Conservatives' queasiness with sex, hate of homosexuals, and their resultant disinterest in solving the AIDS crisis early on.
posted by onlooker at 8:47 AM
2 Comments:
ublic Health measures began in New York and in other places may have been loosely associated with economic growth but only happened after years of squalor and the growth had allowed slums to go unchecked for years while robbers and barons were operating and after considerable political arm twisting and activism.
Africa’s death rates are increasing across all age groups, especially in young women who engage in sex with long absent husbands who have picked up the disease in some distant region. The children are born HIV positive and die with out help. Therefore everyone dies. Superstition, megalomaniacal leaders and lack of delivery systems make this an ongoing problem. Condoms aren’t used with enough frequency.
There has been a great improvement in AIDS therapy especially in aforementioned young women age groups, with a trifecta cocktail reducing the risk worldwide for youth born with HIV. I’m not sure it has increased promiscuity in gay men in the US, although more young gay men use Viagra and they tend to exhibit risky behavior more often.
The Orient is the next great epidemic area, esp. Thailand and China. That is scary in itself.
I made those remarks to rebut GW
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