Posted on 11/21/2003 9:50:23 AM PST by scripter
AIDS Fighters Face a Resistant Form of Apathy
Where have all the condoms gone?
Don't try looking at the Monster, the Hangar, Starlight or Barracuda. On a recent evening, these and more than a dozen other Manhattan gay bars were well stocked with free going-out guides, but not a scrap of literature about H.I.V. prevention or the perils of crystal meth. As for condoms, the frontline defense against sexually transmitted diseases, only one establishment stocked them - behind the bar.
As part of his graduate course work at New York University, Michael Marino set out last winter to compare the AIDS prevention efforts of New York and London. He was troubled by what he found. At most New York bars, and even at some bedrock gay and AIDS service institutions, educational pamphlets and free condoms were hard to find, if not impossible. In London, Mr. Marino found them easily.
"No wonder things are getting so out of control here," he said.
Condoms, which still can be found in vending machines at a handful of places, were once given away by the bucketful. While no one believes free condoms will completely halt the spread of H.I.V., their disappearance from bars, the equivalent of a town hall for some gay men, is a telling indicator of how much steam has been lost in the fight against AIDS.
Although the city health department's recent warning about a rare, possibly more virulent strain of H.I.V. has caused a stir among gay men, many AIDS activists hold out little hope the news will prompt substantial or lasting changes in behavior. They point to the continued popularity of methamphetamine, which has contributed to a rise in condomless intercourse, known as barebacking, and the widespread apathy in which H.I.V. is seen as a nuisance, not a potential killer.
Compounding this laissez-faire attitude, they complain, are drug company advertisements that gloss over the disease's effects by portraying patients as the picture of perfect health.
Locally, at least, the statistics paint a mixed picture. The number of new H.I.V. infections among men who have sex with men declined slightly from 2001 to 2003, according to the most recent figures available, although in much of the country that number has been rising. But AIDS service providers, pointing to a recent spike in syphilis cases and the rise of methamphetamine abuse among gay men, fear it is only a matter of time before New York faces a new surge in infections.
The challenge is far more complicated than handing bar patrons informational brochures and telling them to be good, prevention specialists say.
"Just because folks are well informed doesn't mean they'll necessarily make the wisest choices in terms of their health," said Dr. Ronald O. Valdiserri, who oversees AIDS prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "This is true of all humanity, not just gay men."
The reality that gay men continue to have unprotected sex has been vexing health experts for 20 years, although the struggle became even more daunting in the mid-1990's, when a new class of medications sharply reduced death rates and fed the misconception that AIDS is only about as troublesome as the flu.
And then there are those who disdain condoms. With the specter of imminent death gone, the idea of using condoms has become an annoyance for many. "Let's face it, sex with a condom is not as good," said Dr. Robert L. Klitzman, a psychiatrist and professor at Columbia University. "Sex is supposed to be an incredibly intimate moment, and it's not as intimate when there's a piece of plastic between you and your partner."
There is a growing sense that the traditional sloganeering about condoms and club drugs is about as effective as birth-control campaigns that rely on abstinence. The only hope for changing behavior, public health experts and psychologists say, is to recognize and address the underlying factors that propel men into risky situations. Loneliness, alienation and self-hatred, they say, are the real culprits that need to be addressed.
But others, describing such talk as naïve, say it makes more sense to stress personal responsibility. Demonize crystal meth, stigmatize unprotected sex and remind people that living with H.I.V. can be grueling, or worse. An important first step, they say, would be to stop running pharmaceutical ads that portray people with AIDS as carefree and virile.
Other ideas include following the lead of the San Francisco health department, which is seeking strict limitations on the availability of erectile dysfunction drugs that counteract the impotence induced by crystal meth and encourage the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
Many AIDS activists in New York, describing current public service campaigns as toothless and ineffective, say bus ads and billboards should remind people that AIDS is a devastating and entirely avoidable illness.
Many prevention advocates agree that only a creative, ever-changing arsenal of tactics can reduce the number of new H.I.V. infections. They point out that it has taken years and millions of dollars to change public attitudes about tobacco and seat belts, and even now reasonable people lapse into old ways.
"Everyone knows smoking is bad for you, but we still print those health warnings on cigarette packs," said Kwame M. Banks, a consultant specializing in prevention work. "People need to hear these messages 100 times a day. That's the way these things work."
Still, when it comes to H.I.V. and AIDS, some wonder whether it is time for a new strategy. Perry Halkitis, a psychologist at New York University who studies the relationship between drug use and sex, believes that many gay men who engage in risky behavior are grappling with profound mental health issues.
"People are not taking risks because they're stupid, or because they wake up one day and say, 'I'm going to take a risk today,' " Dr. Halkitis said. "They do it because the sexual risk fulfills a need, or somehow makes them feel better about themselves."
He and others say any successful fight against H.I.V. must deal with depression, substance abuse and low self-esteem, problems that studies have shown affect gay men at disproportionately higher rates.
"Many people might argue that as a community, we suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder because we're so ostracized by society," Dr. Halkitis said. "Being rejected by family, by our churches, and these days by our government most certainly has an impact."
That emotional fragility has been compounded by the trauma of the 1980's and early 90's, when sickness and death permeated the lives of so many. Peter Staley, a veteran AIDS activist, said it was no coincidence that some of the first people in New York to pick up crystal meth habits have been men 35 to 45 years old.
"We are the long-term survivors who watched friends die, who never thought we'd live to have a midlife crisis," said Mr. Staley, who is H.I.V.-positive and himself a recovering meth addict. "Then the new medications came along, and suddenly everyone returned to their old lives and people moved on to other issues, like gays in the military and gay marriage. Where was the communal processing of the emotional hell we had just gone through? I think as a result we're a deeply scarred group."
While such scars can lead to substance abuse, psychologists say the internalized homophobia and deep-seated feelings of low self-worth are just as powerful. That is where the allure of crystal meth kicks in. Those who have used the drug say it tends to blot out feelings of vulnerability, boosts self-confidence and imbues them with a false sense of connection to strangers.
Then there are the "bug chasers," H.I.V.-negative men who actively seek infection. Although such men are thought to be few in number, mental health experts say the phenomenon reflects the intense alienation that many gay men feel. Louis Pansulla, a psychoanalyst who runs gay therapy groups in New York, said younger men, in the generation that missed the darkest days of the AIDS crisis, believe that infection will win them membership into a clique, albeit one coping with a dreaded disease.
"It's almost a longing to belong, even though it's a completely unconscious thing," he said.
Michelangelo Signorile, the host of a gay-themed talk show on Sirius Satellite Radio, takes a less nuanced view: "If everyone in your group is beautiful, taking steroids, barebacking and H.I.V. positive, having the virus doesn't seem like such a bad thing."
It is for that reason that Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, believes the disease is due for an image makeover. He cites a hard-to-miss ad in last month's Out magazine that is embedded with a tiny audio chip and features two robust men on a beach. Opening the magazine sets off the trill of a ringing phone and a man's voice essentially saying he is having too much fun to worry about his chronic illness. Mr. Weinstein has asked the ad's sponsor, Bristol-Myers Squibb, to stop using the ad for the drug, Reyataz. A spokeswoman said the company was re-examining its advertising campaigns.
"People are in such denial about how serious H.I.V. is," Mr. Weinstein said. "Unfortunately, the best prevention is seeing people die."
Of course, frontline prevention workers hope to avoid a new wave of deaths. At Gay Men's Health Crisis, prevention workers are planning a series of events that seek to promote "connectedness and community."
Others are creating antidrug messages that masquerade as packets of meth that can be dropped on dance floors. A series of subway ads unveiled by the state for the first time shifts responsibility to those who are already infected.
And then there are people like Daniel Carlson, a former marketing executive who became so disgusted by the number of men soliciting unprotected sex online that he and a friend started a group to combat the prevailing ethos about sex and drugs. In the past two years, the group, H.I.V. Forum, has organized a half-dozen town hall meetings on crystal meth and unprotected sex that have drawn packed houses.
"I know it sounds touchy-feely, but if we could just emphasize a little bit more community and brotherhood," Mr. Carlson said. "We have to decide whether we're going to be selfish or whether we're going to care about one another."
Additional GRID-related links and excerpts posted in the following replies in this thread:
182, 183, 199, 200, 263, 287, 301, 320, 321, 351, 439, 451, 457, 463, 465, 466, 476, 504, 508, 520, 522, 526, 537, and 544.
Who is Diane Lenning and Why Did She Almost Lose Her Job?, Warren Throckmorton, PhD July 19, 2004
"Who is Diane Lenning? Mrs. Lenning is a public school teacher from California who was until recently the Chair of the Republican Educators Caucus, an interest group within the National Education Association. According to a series of stories by George Archibald of the Washington Times, Mrs. Lenning recently was challenged and nearly ousted from her position in part because she formally protested an award the NEA presented the week of its annual convention in early July. What award? The NEA gives human rights awards yearly and this year one of them, the Virginia Uribe Human Rights Award was given to Kevin Jennings, the Executive Director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Educators Caucus (GLSEN).
If you have children in public schools, the Lenning - Jennings story is one you should know.
Kevin Jennings is the founder and executive director of the group that seeks to bring discussion of homosexuality related issues to our nation’s public schools from the elementary grades to college. GLSEN has been remarkably successful in popularizing the concept of gay-straight support clubs in schools, of which there are now more than 2000 nationwide. However, Mrs. Lenning and the other teachers were not protesting his award based on his political objectives...
Here are the details. In his book, One Teacher in Ten, Mr. Jennings wrote about a high school sophomore who confessed to him what appears to be a homosexual affair with an older adult male. As now, teachers in Massachusetts were then required to report such sexual offenses involving minors to the authorities. Failure to report is not only unethical behavior but illegal in the state. According to Mr. Jennings account in the book and corroborated by a July 2 Washington Times’ article, no such report was made. Mr. Jennings turned the event into a time of sharing and apparently a part of the boy’s gay coming out story. Concerning this event, Mrs. Lenning’s letter asks: "Is it a good idea for NEA to honor as exemplary a teacher who engages in unethical practice?"
Mrs. Lenning also mentioned the role of GLSEN in another Massachusetts incident. She wrote: “GLSEN has been involved in questionable incidents that bring undesired notoriety to the education profession and should not be awarded. The famous questionable “Fistgate” at Tufts University is an example of GLSEN activities that have brought unsolicited notoriety.”
What was Fistgate? Along with the MA Department of Education on March 25, 2000, GLSEN presented a workshop for teachers and students that resulted in the dismissal of three DOE employees and the removal of GLSEN as the state authorized contractor. Mr. Jennings was the keynote speaker at the event. The reason for the dismissal involved graphic descriptions of how to perform certain homosexual acts before students as young as 14. A tape was made of the event and publicly distributed. I can’t report what was said because if I did, this column would not get published anywhere..."
"... In the letter, Mrs. Lenning said Mr. Jennings had broken Massachusetts law in 1988 by not reporting a 16-year-old high school student's disclosure of emotional problems resulting from a sexual affair with an older man in Boston.
Mr. Jennings cited the youth's problems in a book, saying he sympathized with the boy's homosexual relationship after he came for guidance to Mr. Jennings, an openly homosexual teacher at Concord Academy in Concord, Mass.
A state "mandatory reporter" law required the teacher to inform state social services authorities of a possible case of child sexual abuse, which he did not do..."
"Providing Support for Jailed Child Molesters" (this is not a joke)
California's Arrogant Same-Sex 'Marriage' Bill
GOVERNOR RENDELL TO UNVEIL MARKER HONORING THOSE WHO COMMIT ACTS OF SODOMY AT NATIONAL CELEBRATION
Gay advocates plan protest of Focus
Father arrested over objections to homosexual curriculum in son’s kindergarten class.
Lexington school calls cops on dad irate over gay book
School Text Book - Who's In A Family? (Shows every family but one with husband, wife and kids).
Arrested father had point to make ---- Disputed school's lesson on diversity
Parent Arrested Over Gay Content In Book
Arrested father had point to make Disputed school's lesson on "diversity"
Report: Christian Parent Arrested After Being Denied Say-So in Son's Education
West High math teacher accused of anti-gay remarks plans to resign
It's 1984 in Massachusetts – And Big Brother Is Gay (revisited)
There are at least three reasons that the Arkansas regulation prohibiting homosexually-behaving adults from being licenses as foster parents has a rational basis:All around, children of homosexual, adoption and foster parents are much worse off than children of heterosexual parents.
- The inherent nature and structure of households with a homosexually-behaving adult uniquely endangers foster children by exposing them to a substantial level of harmful stresses that are over and above usual stress levels in heterosexual foster homes.
- Homosexual partner relationships are significantly and substantially less stable and more short-lived on the average compared to a marriage of a man and a woman, thereby inevitably contributing to a substantially higher rate of household transitions in foster homes with a homosexually-behaving adult.
- The inherent structure of foster-parent households with one or more homosexually-behaving members deprives foster children of vitally needed positive contributions to child adjustment that are only present in licenses heterosexual foster homes.
Please add me to your ping list - Thanks
Homosexual Group Admits Obscene Material Was Handed Out at Conference (to Mass. Middle-Schoolers)
Group: Explicit gay sex flier passed out at school
SADLY, IT'S TRUE... (sodomy materials at high school)
More On Ma. Audiotape of Ma. Public Employees Demonstrating How Teens Can Fist Their Sex Partners
Mass. Pro-Family Groups Resist Homosexual Activism's 'Reign of Madness'
Boycott the Organizations That Contributed to the Corruption of Children in MA!
Expert: Many Promote Homosexual Parenting With Poor Reasons, Faulty Premise
"It's a biological given that homosexuals cannot reproduce; however, many are getting children by hiring surrogates. One professor at Marquette University says these manufactured families are just an effort to "normalize" homosexuality.
Dr. Christopher Wolfe is a professor of political science and an expert on homosexuality and American public life. He says some homosexual couples really do want to adopt or have children because they desire a family; but those who do, he contends, are in the minority.
Wolfe says indications of this leads many analysts to suspect what he believes to be true, "that the big push for same-sex parenting has much less to do with the desire of homosexuals, generally, for children than it does with a desire that they have to not be different -- to not be singled out and treated differently."
For most homosexuals, Wolfe contends, the desire to become parents is really about legitimizing their type of relationship and denying the abnormality of it, including the inability to produce children. "They want to have the same rights that everybody else in society has," he says.
The Marquette University professor says homosexual activists try to stack their arguments in favor of homosexual parenting by citing studies that claim there is no noticeable difference between the children of homosexual couples and heterosexual couples. However, he notes, much of the evidence they cite comes from people who were looking for a particular outcome.
On the other hand, Wolfe points out, "If you look at a number of different first-rate social science articles that have approached this subject -- one is by anti-gay-parenting authors Robert Lerner and Althea K. Nagai -- they analyze all these studies about same-sex parenting and show that all of those studies are really defective." In fact, the professor adds, two pro-homosexual-parenting researchers actually point out in their study that children of homosexual parents do turn out differently from children parented by a mother and a father.
Rejecting the assumption that no differences exist, Wolfe says the two researchers investigated and went on to conclude that children of homosexual parents are more likely to be depressed and more likely to display homosexual tendencies as they mature."
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