Posted on 10/22/2010 7:03:24 AM PDT by flowerplough
How a new report on HIV infection in the Big Apple scared a health reporter into getting tested and having a frank discussion with her "boo."
By Tomika Anderson
My longtime lover and I were driving through Harlem when we passed a billboard that made me want to slam on the brakes and pull the car over. On it were two women -- one black and one Latina -- their pretty, youthful faces in lights. But under their pictures was a statistic that sucker-punched me: 93.4 percent.
As in, 93.4 of all new HIV cases among women in NYC occur among black and Latina women.
...
According to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, a majority of the newest reported infections among women in that city were obtained during heterosexual sex. And the number of newly infected black women is on the rise: The latest count (which covers the first half of 2009) is up nearly 2 percent from 2008.
The astronomical figure hits even closer to home for me: Not only do Black women account for more than 66 percent of all new cases (beating Latinas two to one), but the group of sistas getting infected fastest are 30 to 39 years old -- an age when many of us are getting married or are trying to be married. When many of us are having children. When many of us -- myself included -- figure, hell, I've been in this long-term relationship for a while ... I can let down my guard and trust my partner. Right?
Clearly, wrong.
Three days later, I got my second HIV test of the year.
(Excerpt) Read more at theroot.com ...
“The wages of sin is death”.
The old Truths are still true.
Amen to that. Rules are there for a reason.
You would think that they would have testing done.
I really cannot comprehend behaving this way. It’s like a different planet the mentality is so uncomprehensible to me.
Exactly. She should be concentrating on a career that puts her in a position of finding a decent man. Number two point eight billion I am all for women having a career.
Exactly. She should be concentrating on a career that puts her in a position of finding a decent man. Number two point eight billion I am all for women having a career.
Don’t do that! Logic might hurt someone’s feelings and self esteem!
Exactly. If a culture values self discipline, chastity, and morality, with a dash of going after decent men instead of gang members, the members of it will avoid massive amounts of infection from sexually transmitted diseases.
Idiocy.
These women are idiots for dating people who are cirminals in the first place. Do these women NOT WANT to live a stable lifestyle?
They still need to engage in the same behaviors to contract the virus.
Henry Louis Gates? Yuck.
She admits that “her boo” and she are not in a committed relationship.
People! Your vagina is precious! Guard it! Don’t let anyone in there who hasn’t committed to you (who has shown you he is negative) and you won’t get AIDS!
Medically, this orifice is very effective as a delivery mechanism for medication. Does that tell you anything? Those walls go straight into your bloodstream, girls! You do not want strangers in there. (Sorry, guys — but hey, you don’t want to marry a girl who had a bunch of strangers’ stuff in there, DO YOU??)
You are right and you are wrong... The woman may be married, in a committed relationship, a churchgoer. But her HUSBAND could be on the down low. Thus SHE is getting HIV from heterosexuality. (He didn't.)
I just realized this could be Michelle Obama’s focus in the next two years. She could be the spokeswoman for women of color, promoting abstinence until marriage, and promoting careful choice of spouse to make sure he is who he says he is. She could also promote condom use when you SUSPECT your man is on the Down Low. She would be perfect for it, and she could save lives.
This is the harvest we reap because of the sexual revolution.
FASCINATING. I did not know that. A great article. It makes sense to me.
I know we don’t have a lot of wild gay black males here as FReepers, but they need to read this article and then do everything specific to boost their immune systems before they engage in their risky activities. Of course, they should AVOID these activities, but if you know anyone who doesn’t, tell him to read up on what vitamins and supplements could boost his immune system so he’s not at this much huger risk of HIV than his white pals.
Yep. But as I see it re science, that sexual revolution (birth control and other technology) was bound to happen. The really messed up part was the stupid feminists, messing with social shame. THEY blew it for the rest of us women and girls.
Yup, that’s what I really was referring to, the destruction of the social order that people had lived by for generations.
This is too funny.
“I went because ... even though I’m pretty sure he’s not an IV-drug user, and I don’t think he’s slept with (or is sleeping with) men, I don’t know that for sure — particularly since we are not in a committed relationship.”
Ok, you’re in a “long-term relationship” but not a “committed relationship”? So you just sleep around whenever you like, then come home to each other? I think you need to get tested more than twice a year!
Also, what is this thing with women not knowing “for sure” if their significant other is gay? Is it really that hard to figure out? I know black men on the “down low” try a lot harder to blend in, but woman can’t seem to tell when regular old white pansies are gay either. They really need to start asking their brothers or uncles to take the guy on a fishing trip or something and report back.
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