eva young
Eva Young is President of Log Cabin Republicans of Minnesota and lives in Minneapolis with her cat, Kiddleleewink. You can also read her other blog here.
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February 15, 2005

Both Christian Grantham and Gay Patriot West have been covering this story.

UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan weighs in.

This really seems like history is repeating itself. From the New York Times:

"Gay men do not have the right to spread a debilitating and often fatal disease," said Charles Kaiser, a historian and author of "The Gay Metropolis." "A person who is H.I.V.-positive has no more right to unprotected intercourse than he has the right to put a bullet through another person's head," he said.

While not endorsing specific strategies, even mainstream organizations like the Gay Men's Health Crisis support the idea of trying methods that would have been anathema a few years ago. "It makes a community stronger when we take care of ourselves," said Ana Oliveira, the organization's executive director, "and if that means that we have to be much more present and intervene with people who are doing this to themselves and others, then so be it."

For many others, however, even talk of such steps provokes hand-wringing. "We don't want public health vigilantes going out and taking matters into their own hands, particularly if it means breaching the confidentially and civil rights of people with H.I.V.," said Jon Givner, the director of the H.I.V. Project at the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. "Frankly, I find it pretty scary."

This sounds like Randy Shilts's And the Band Played On all over again. The debate continues:

A more effective approach, he said, would involve gay organizations using traditional public health measures, such as more widespread screening and a partner-notification effort to track users of crystal meth who have been infected recently.

"Why would it not be possible to get them together to communicate to each other, and then to their sex partners, that lives are being put at risk by reckless behavior?" he asked. "I think there are ways to do interventions ethically, sensitively and compassionately. There's a huge window of opportunity between criminalization and empty prevention messages."

Still, others remain wary of such measures. Walt Odets, a clinical psychologist and the author of "In the Shadow of the Epidemic: Being HIV-Negative in the Age of AIDS," said he thought such intervention smacked of a witch hunt.

He and others said it would be more effective to try to identify the underlying causes of drug abuse and self-destructive behavior, including the difficulty of living in a society that rejects committed gay relationships while condemning homosexuals for having sex outside those relationships. Gay men, he said, are using methamphetamines as an anti-depressant.

This is nonsensical enabling of irresponsible - and potentially lethal - behavior. It's just the notion of celebrating sexual license, rather than escaping oppression. There are parts of gay male culture that do this.

Stephen Bennett - the Posterboy Ex-Gay - rather predictably is exploiting the situation:

As a former homosexual, Bennett has buried numerous lovers and friends in the ground who have died from AIDS. Bennett left the "gay" lifestyle in 1992 after 11 years. He is now married almost 12 years to his wife and the father of their two children.

"For years the Center for Disease Control has been warning Americans of the
increase in HIV infection, with homosexual male sex being the predominant
cause (upwards of 60% or more of all cases reported.) Yet even within such a
high risk group, homosexuals continue to engage in risky, deadly behavior.

While young 'gay' men are dying early deaths, the media, schools and state
governments continue to promote this deadly lifestyle. It was a miracle I
was never infected with HIV. No doubt, if I continued in my homosexual
lifestyle, I would probably be dead today myself," said Bennett.

Sexual irresponsibility is a problem - whether practiced by gays or straights. Ofcourse the Leviticus Crowd promotes the notion that "condoms don't work" in the "abstinence only" curriculum - this is also a lethal message. Condoms used properly do significantly reduce (though do not eliminate) HIV transmission.