The HIV/Aids Culture
Rev. Dr. Mel White offers some examples of what I will refer to as heartless and extremely disturbed individuals who have claimed that the Bible’s condemnation of homosexuality was their motivation to commit the horrendous sin of murder. These actions were obviously against the forgiveness offered through Jesus Christ who told us to be harmless as doves (Matthew 10:16). These actions ought to be, and are, condemned by traditional Christians.
Rev. Dr. Mel White peppered his publication with pictures of the Ku Klux Klan and people holding up malicious protest signs. However, it would seem appropriate to take a well rounded view in pointing out that the homosexual community itself has been responsible for very many more homosexual deaths. It is a tragic fact that homosexual’s own lifestyles have killed thousands of homosexuals. Non-monogamous, irresponsible, unprotected sex has produced a plague in the homosexual community. The choice to partake in these actions has not only killed thousands but has condemned thousands to live a life of suffering with incurable diseases.
Let us not rely, in this regard, on the words of a heterosexual who is writing an essay to demonstrate the various errors in Rev. Dr. Mel White’s publication. Let us rather, at this point, quote long time homosexual activist Harvey Fierstein who wrote an Op-Ed for The New York Times entitled, “The Culture of Disease” (7-31-03). Mr. Fierstein places some blame for the AIDS crisis on pharmaceutical companies who make money by selling treatment drugs and who produce appealing advertising. However, he certainly makes some brutally honest and shocking statements about the poor and simply irresponsible behavior engaged in by some homosexuals.
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Mr. Fierstein writes, “So we produced advertising, created enlightenment programs, spent endless hours making certain that having AIDS or being H.I.V. positive was nothing to be ashamed of. We did a great job. Maybe too great a job. After all the effort exerted to convince the world that AIDS is not a gay disease, we now have a generation embracing AIDS as its gay birthright…Many of our young men see infection as a right of passage[sic], an inevitable coming of age. I hear of them seeking the disease as entree into the cool, queer inner circle that being negative denies them…Unlike the photos in the ads we see, most of my friends who are on drug cocktails [to treat H.I.V.] are not having the time of their lives. They spend mornings in the bathroom throwing up or suffering from diarrhea. They spend afternoons at doctor’s appointments, clinics and pharmacies. And they spend endless evenings planning their estates and trying to make ends meet because they are not well enough to support themselves and their new drug habit. And those are just the friends for whom the drugs work. For many women the cocktails are nothing but a drain on finance, internal organs and stamina…We have done a terrific job removing the stigma of having AIDS. But in doing so we’ve failed to eliminate the disease. H.I.V. is an almost completely avoidable infection. You need to be compliant in some very specific behaviors to be at risk. In fact, if every person now infected vowed that the disease ended with him, we could wipe out the ballooning number of new infections. Instead, we’ve sold our next generation into drug slavery and their destiny to medical researchers because we’d rather treat each other as sexual objects than as family…stop minimizing the infection with cute little names like ‘the gift’ or ‘the bug.’” (Emphasis is mine).
We learn that far from taking every possible precaution to avoid AIDS some homosexuals, which we hope to God represent an extreme minority, actually seek infection. William McFarland, head of HIV/AIDS statistics at San Francisco’s Department of Public Health concluded that, “One out of every four gay males – 25.8 percent – is infected with the HIV virus, giving San Francisco an estimated total of 16,401 HIV-positive men.”1 According to the Centers for Disease Control infection among homosexual men rose 14 percent from 1999 through 2001.
Mr. Fierstein also makes an all too rare and absolutely factual statement to the effect that AIDS is one of the most avoidable diseases known to mankind. It is generally passed on by means of non-monogamous, irresponsible, unprotected sex. If you were to counter argue by asking about getting it through a blood transfusion I would ask how AIDS got in the blood in the first place.
At the February 2003 Berlin Film Festival a documentary by Louise Hogarth premiered entitled “The Gift.” This documentary also claims that a passe attitude towards HIV is to be blamed on drug companies and the media. Yet, it also deals with the phenomena of “bug chasing,” (healthy men who seek infection) and “barebacking,” (unprotected sex with infected men) with the “gift givers,” (infected men who willingly infect willing healthy men) in hopes of “seroconverting,” (converting from HIV- to HIV+).
One last word about Mr. Fierstein’s complaints about the advertising that depicts HIV positive and those with full-blown AIDS living happy, fulfilling lives: it is tragically ironic that first, activists demand that pharmaceutical companies produce drugs to treat HIV/AIDS and demand the tax money of every American citizen to pay for treatment. But then they complain that the pharmaceutical companies advertise their drugs by claiming that you can live a better life if you consume them. Certainly, we would all be better off with honesty in both advertizing and lifestyle.