AIDS Fighters Face a Resistant Form of Apathy

NY Times ^ | April 3, 2005 | ANDREW JACOBS

[Tall_Texan]

Does that make me a homophobe?

Actually, it makes you desensitized to these self-important drama queens who insist they deserve "rights" even as they show little concern for the health of their own kind.

[SIDENET]

Gays would rather have a backdoor defense to sexually transmitted diseases

Unintentionally funny.

[MoochPooch]

And I'm supposed to feel sorry for these people because they contracted a disease they brought on themselves?


Boo hoo. (sarcasm)

[gidget7]

Just more reverse psychology, and junk science!! They spew off these lies, which they know are lies, and play the victim, all to further their case, which is to have themselves accepted as normal. Which by the way, even if every heterosexual in society did, they would STILL feel depressed, isolated, etc etc etc, because they KNOW it isn't normal behavior! Hence the self hatred!

[thompsonsjkc]

What's this big deal about free condoms. You can buy them anywhere, unless of course you can't be bothered to pay for your own protection.

[pfony1]

Promiscuity = Low Self Esteem = Death Wish

This is NOT a complex story...

I wonder when the MSM will start reporting the tragedy here -- without romanticizing it...

[pfony1]

Promiscuity = Low Self Esteem = Death Wish

This is NOT a complex story...

I wonder when the MSM will start reporting the tragedy here -- without romanticizing it...

[gidget7]

They don't want them even if they are free. Most gay men will tell you that. "It's not loooovving" they say!

And using an exit only body orifice, where you tear the skin and tissue and nerves, mixed body waste with blood, cause all sort of deadly conditions, and cause pain, IS???? We don't THNIK SO!!!!!

Interesting that they stated a gay bar is the equivalent of a town hall, they do think everything in life, in fact life is defined by, perverted sex.

[moonman]

"We have to decide whether we're going to be selfish or whether we're going to care about one another."

Gays are THE most self-centered people on Earth. It's ALWAYS bout 'ME'.

Most definately, they will STAY selfish!

[humblegunner]

"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."

Yeah, right up until they die they feel better.

[jocon307]

"Was the word abstinence used in the article?"

Only in a negative way, too lazy to go back and quote it, but someting along the lines of: safe(safer?) sex campaigns stressing condom use have about as much success as birth control campaigns that are abstinence only based

At that wasn't even the stupidest part of the piece!

[Wally_Kalbacken]

My question is this: If you have sufficient research funding to compare the availability of public health brochures in gay bars in London and NYC - wouldn't you think there might have been funding for accurate and unbiased presentation on the cost impact of HIV in the US?

Doh!

Here in the United States you have the Attorneys General of numerous states bonding together to extract a multi-billion dollar settlement from the tobacco manufacturers. Why? Because the states had to bear the burden of increased healthcare costs via Medicare and Medicaid programs to treat the effects of tobacco use. Fair enough. Anyone see any action by the attorneys General against anyone responsible for the foisting of billions of dollars in health care costs of the general public (taxpayers for Medicare and Medicaid expenses, public in general via private pay insurance) caused by the reckless transmission of HIV? Of course not.

It had to be about 20 years ago when I was first insulted with PSA's in movie theaters, in public transportation and on television and radio. The use of the broad brush approach was an attempt to make sure we all knew that "everyone is at risk", which - as Michael Fumento pointed out in 1990 - is not true. A select subset of the population is at risk - and because of their conscious choices.

We need to find a way of making the costs of this matter fall on the people who make those choices - that will be the fastest way to stop HIV transmission.

[ozzymandus]

I have to admit, I'm pretty apathetic about AIDS myself. If people want to expose themselves to such a terrible disease just to look cool to each other, so be it. As long as they stay away from me, I don't care what they do to each other.

[Oztrich Boy]

"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."

Poor baby!

[cpdiii]

If the straight world was as promiscuous and engaged in the same type of behavior with a multitude of different heterosexual partners, and used illicit drugs we would have the same problem in the straight world. As a rule most of the straight world does not. Most of the straight world is HIV free and not at risk for it so long as they are monogamous and do not use illegal iv drugs.

If I walk out in front of a Mack Truck doing 70 miles an hour it will probably kill me. All this would prove is that I demonstrated very poor judgment.

[Tall_Texan]

Not unintentional on my part.

[neverdem]

As long as they stay away from me, I don't care what they do to each other.

Male sex with men accounted for about fifty percent of the new cases of HIV infection the last time that I looked at the numbers. Unfortunately, a fair number of these fools are also bisexual, others share needles and some do both.

[SIDENET]

My bad, I thought it was a figure of speech and seized on the wording.

[Beowulf9]

"If the straight world was as promiscuous and engaged in the same type of behavior with a multitude of different heterosexual partners, and used illicit drugs we would have the same problem in the straight world".

http://www.aim.org/media_monitor/A1014_0_C/

It's true mostly the straight world doesn't have this problem but not ALL girls say 'no'......"Brenda MacKillop, a Playboy Bunny at the Playboy Club in Los Angeles, testified that illegal drug use, group sex, and homosexuality were common in the Playboy mansion and that she began to drink and use drugs to desensitize her mind to the seamy world in which she found herself. This is the world celebrated by the media".

[DTogo]

"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."

T.M.I.