Rapacious Syphilitic Homos
The Immoral Minority amongst us is once again proving problematic when it comes to containing the rise in new HIV and STD infections amongst gay men.
Two articles in today's Health section of the New York Times illustrate the growing problem we face as a community in propagating and enforcing standards dealing with partner notification and safe sex.
One article deals with a study by two physicians dealing with the number of men who do not report their HIV status to their partners, and this number is far greater than you may think, more than 1/3 according to the authors of the study. The number is probably actually higher because people lie in these types of studies when dealing with such sensitive issues like passing on deadly viruses to people and not telling them.
As Americans we look for someone or something to blame for this problem, and there are multiple candidates to accuse. One is the patients themselves, who have chosen to worship at the alter of immediate self-gratification and ignore any concern about their partners health and well-being. Such a decision is totally immoral and wrong but has been made easier by the apologists in the gay community like Seattle's Gay City Health Project. Groups like these see the issue as society's treatment and stigmatizing of people with HIV. They refuse to "pass judgment" on those immoral people spreading HIV. They've acted as apologists for too long, when instead they should be at the forefront of encouraging people to accept responsibility for their actions and placing blame when blame is due.
The second sad story deals with a study detailing the rising rates of syphilis amongst, you guessed it, gay men! The story says:
"The study, which appeared in the current issue of the agency's journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, shows that the increase has occurred disproportionately among gay and bisexual men, raising concerns about a possible surge in H.I.V. infection."
Again a small minority of immoral gay men are casting a bad light on the rest of us by their behaviors. The vectors of transmission for this disease is shown to be sex clubs and bathhouses as a disproportionate number of men who have been infected cull their partners from places where frequent anonymous sexual encounters are standard. AOL and Gay.com chatrooms are another place where outbreaks have been linked from.
So what's the answer? I'm not an epidemiologist, just a student who has had his own slightly slutty past but has luckily avoided ever coming down with an STD. Still, gay men should look at themselves and the type of community they want to create and start taking responsibility for their actions. Shutting down the vectors for rapid transmission of HIV and other STDs would also be a positive development, which in plain language means closing down bathhouses and sex clubs.
As gay men we brought this disease under control in the 80's and early 90's just to see rates of infection begin to rise again in the late 90's. As a community we must exert control and make hard choices to avoid another avalanche of dead and dying gay men in the new millennium.
9:58:35 AM 
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