Some gay black men are keeping a deadly secret

St. LOuis Post-Dispatch ^ | 4-21-02 | Denise Hollinshed

[FairWitness]

There is a new front in the war against AIDS. When first discovered 20 years ago, the disease was taking a devastating toll among white gay men. Now it is the leading cause of death among African-Americans, ages 25 to 44. This story is the second in a series that describes the impact of AIDS in St. Louis.

[FairWitness]

I post this with some hesitation. Please, no racial slurs. While the article focuses on one race, homosexuality and AIDS, IMHO, is not a racial thing.

I think it is worth reading the article to understand how futile it currently seems to be to try to control this epidemic. I only wish that homosexuality could be studied in a thorough, scientific (not PC) manner, with the hope that somehow it could be at least greatly reduced in practice. I don't pretend to know all the answers, but my instincts say to me that homosexuality in many, if not all cases, is a coping mechanism for people who are afraid of the "real thing" for some reason (parenthood? responsibility? comittment? "strong" women?). What I do know is that the practice of homosexuality, which so often seems to include multiple partners (heterosexual promiscuity is almost as bad), is one of the most efficient disease spreading mechanisms available.

[anniegetyourgun]

True enough that we will not limit this disease until we acknowledge how it is spread and who is spreading it. But those who desire to see that acknowlegement will instead be hushed by name-calling.

[Voltage]

A stunning example of willful ignorance:

Williams said he understood why Grandberry kept his disease and the fact that he was a homosexual a secret. "He didn't want that to be a barrier in terms of his efforts to get the word out about HIV prevention, because even people today think HIV and AIDS is a gay disease," he said.

There is obviously little hope!

[friendly]

The "gay community" has consistently politicized the issue of AIDS, absolutely refusing it to be treated as a public health issue from 1981 onwards. Thus there was never any partner tracking, mandated treatment, incaceration/quarantine for non-compliant disease vectors (intentional spreaders of AIDS, and proper diagnosis, isolation & treatment of infected prisoners... and so forth.

The blacks bear the burden of ACT UP's evil political agenda.

[friendly]

The "gay community" has consistently politicized the issue of AIDS, absolutely refusing it to be treated as a public health issue from 1981 onwards. Thus there was never any partner tracking, mandated treatment, incaceration/quarantine for non-compliant disease vectors (those recalcitrant intentional spreaders of AIDS), and the proper diagnosis, isolation & treatment of infected prisoners... and so forth.

The blacks bear the burden of ACT UP's evil political agenda.

[MarineDad]

ahem...and I quote:

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

-Albert Einstein

[goorala]

How exactly would the support group have kept him from contracting or further spreading AIDS? Did they pass out condoms at the meeting? Did they discuss not having sex? It's a meeting, not a cure.

[FairWitness]

How exactly would the support group have kept him from contracting or further spreading AIDS?

Good question. As long as "support groups" concentrate on trying to make an inherently dangerous activity "safe", rather than changing (stopping) the behaviour, they are doomed to failure.

[gg188]

* Sixty-four percent of all women who get new HIV infections are African-American. Even so, it may be a stretch to say that the down low phenomenon is only a problem among African-Americans.

Isn't the willful ignorance incredible! If the data don't fit the POLITICALLY CORRECT THEORY about AIDS, ignore or spin the data!

They don't WANT AIDS to be a HOMO disease so, voila, they PRONOUNCE it not merely a homo's disease....They don't WANT it to affect black women at a rate of--what would thie be---10 x the rate of white women?---so they simply tell the whopper in black and white, "it would be a stretch to say..."...Damn...

[Balding_Eagle]

AIDs and the scandals faced by the Catholic Church have a common problem, refusal to face the underlying cause. Until that time scores of people will die and/or be assulted.

[hgro]

God's will at work?

[bayourod]

Why is it called the "down low"?

Is this like the old joke about the difference between "sugar twins" anmd "sweet-n-low"?

[FITZ]

It's not a racial thing, it's cultural. Whites have it better than Hispanics and Blacks because for one homosexuality is defined differently in different groups. In the white-anglo culture, a homosexual is one if they ever have sex with someone of the same sex, other cultures believe if a man sometimes has sex with a woman, he can still be considered straight.

[Sci Fi Guy]

Sad Article

"If you know your man is having sex with another man, leave him, because he is not going to stop," he said.

Actually there is growing evidence that many people not only can stop, but can change their orientation.

[Kerensky]

These days, God doesn't have to rain fire and brimstone from heaven...

[BeAllYouCanBe]

White gay men have their own churches, clubs and bars, where the word can be spread openly about disease prevention, King says. It doesn't work that way among down low blacks, he said.

So white gays have their own organizations SO WHAT!!

"Bare-backing" the practice of unprotected sex is as common today as in 1984 before we had the great education crusade. Billions and billions spent ton AIDS education -- nostly tax dollars. The bars and clubs are places for gays to meet -- hook-up -- and spread AIDS and we're to all feel good about that they have their own parallel society. If blacks had clubs, churches and bars how would it help?

I one time heard the cost to the average tax payer on how much AIDS costs in yearly $$. I think it is a large portion of our taxes pay for our refusal to tke a stand against AIDS. I seldom hear of anyone who has AIDS being proscuted for spreading the disease.

[FairWitness]

In the white-anglo culture, a homosexual is one if they ever have sex with someone of the same sex, other cultures believe if a man sometimes has sex with a woman, he can still be considered straight.

Interesting. Like so much of what makes us happy or sad, angry or tranquil, good or bad, it is "in our minds", as much or more than it is exterior to us. What is not just "in our minds" is the objective fact of disease and death associated with certain behaviors.

[BradyLS]

White gay men have their own churches, clubs and bars, where the word can be spread openly about disease prevention, King says. It doesn't work that way among down low blacks, he said.

Looks like white gays are in for some trouble once the NAACP catches wind of this.

[boris]

The human race has--by hard experience--learned how to deal with sexually-transmitted diseases.

Two words: Quarrantine and contact tracing.

My father was a dermatologist in Baltimore. The state health laws were quite specific. Occasionally he saw a case of syphillis or gonorrhea. The law said he was to "hold" the patient (literally not permit him or her to leave the office!) and contact the Health Dept. They sent an investigator right over. He asked "who have you been with?"...names, addresses, phone numbers. Then he contacted them and so on. No nonsense.

Quarrantine: keep the infected person from infecting others.

These methods, learned over centuries of experience with venereal diseases, would defeat AIDS in one or two generations.

But HIV, as Bill Buckley famously remarked, is the "first virus with Civil Rights." AIDS activists=="AIDS spokespersons" (literally, mouthpieces for the disease, and no dirty jokes) are actively encouraging the spread of the disease by making the standard protocol "politically incorrect". It is they who have the deaths of thousands on their hands.

Buckley also offered another "outrageous" suggestion: anyone testing positive for HIV should bear a tattoo--a warning sign--on his buttocks. Truth in advertising. Imagine the uproar this quite sensible suggestion caused...

--Boris

[sharktrager]

I can answer that. The Texas Department of HIV Awareness and Prevention spends almost all of it's budget on treating people who already have disease. They spend close to $6 million per month on drugs alone.

It all depends on how you define "prevention"

[vigilo]

"Homophobia -- the irrational fear or hatred of homosexuals "

This article is about homosexuals with AIDS knowingly having sex with men and women, not telling their 'partners' about their conditions and not using protection. In other words, knowingly spreading a hideous disease. And to fear these people is 'irrational'? Fearing people who kill for their own pleasure seems very rational to me.

[1234]

tx for info. this outrageous infecting of others is being subsidized by us poor taxpayers-why can't we closeley monitor and regulate people who are gettin gubmint benefits?!

[Looking4Truth]

The black people in this country are killing themselves with their own 'culture'.

They are killing each other in the streets because the rap sh*theads glorify the gangsta mentality, they are strangling their own intellectual potential by ostracizing high-achieving blacks for being 'too white', ignoring the cold realities of being a dependent class, ignoring the fact that their men are living this 'down low' lifestyle and spreading disease to their own women and children, and probably a hundred other reasons.

This sick 'culture' that they seem to love is what is killing them.