It seems that HIV really ‘is a gay disease’
- Jul 3, 2008 - 10
It seems that HIV ‘is a gay disease.’
How should society respond to a behavior – a lifestyle choice – that places those who engage in the behavior at a high risk for poor health and grave disease?
If the behavior in question is smoking, American society does everything in its power to discourage the behavior to the point of passing laws that make it illegal to puff in public places, even if the public venue is privately owned.
However, if the behavior that results in probable poor health and potentially fatal disease is promiscuous sex, particularly homosexual sex, society only encourages those who engage in the behavior to do so safely.
The result of America’s collective attack on smoking is that the rate of those who smoke has decreased dramatically in the United States. Additionally, the attitude toward smokers has shifted from tolerant acceptance to intolerant disgust.
What has society’s “safe” approach to immoral and aberrant sex produced? Sexually transmitted diseases that are rampant and commonplace, so much so that drugs designed to deal with them are now routinely advertised on television.
Additionally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has adopted new counting methods that have revealed an HIV rate in America that is 25 percent higher than first thought.
The CDC estimates there are 50,000 new cases of HIV infection reported each year. Currently 1.1 million people in the United States are believed to be infected with HIV.
All HIV infections are a result of someone’s behavior. According to the CDC, in 2006 59 percent of new HIV infections were caused solely by male-to-male sexual contact, and 7 percent by both male-to-male contact and drug use. That means that homosexual men, who comprise approximately 2 percent of the population, accounted for 66 percent of new HIV cases two years ago. Of the remaining HIV cases, 17 percent were transmitted by high-risk heterosexual contact and 16 percent solely by drug use.
The one thing that all the HIV infections have in common is they are a direct result of behavior.
For years homosexual activists insisted that HIV was not a homosexual disease. That has changed. Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, told the organization’s national conference in February that HIV is “a gay disease.”
“Folks, with 70 percent of the people in this country living with HIV being gay or bisexual,” Foreman said, “we cannot deny that HIV is a gay disease. We have to own that and face up to that.”
Foreman acknowledged what many of us have known for decades: HIV and its companion disease AIDS is dramatically disproportionate among male homosexuals.
The safe-sex message in relation to HIV has been neither wise nor helpful. A report released in 2001 by the CDC concluded that condom use reduces the risk of contracting HIV by only 85 percent – and then only when used “correctly and consistently.”
In a “game” of Russian roulette there is an 83.4 percent chance of firing an empty chamber. However, no one encourages participation in the dangerous game even though the odds of getting a bullet are relatively low. Why? The stakes are simply too high. The same is true for condoms and HIV.
What I find utterly amazing is that while STDs, including HIV, are spread solely on the basis of behavior, society continues to send a message of safety rather than abstinence. And homosexual sex continues to be portrayed as some civil right rather than an incubator for a deadly disease.
It seems that a majority in American culture have surrendered to the idea that sexual desire is so overwhelming, so part of our nature, that it simply cannot be restrained.
In the classic movie “The African Queen” there is a scene where Charlie Allnut, played by Humphrey Bogart, is justifying his propensity to imbibe alcohol. He says to Rose Sayer, a missionary played by Katharine Hepburn, “A man takes a drop too much once in a while; it’s only human nature.” To which Rose replies, “Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put in this world to rise above.”
Man can rise above any and all negative aspects of human nature – whether it is a desire to light up a cigarette or engage in risky promiscuous sex.
Given the fact that promiscuous sex, and homosexual sex in particular, is so fraught with negative health consequences and the potential for dread disease, it would seem that society would embrace the same message that it directs toward smokers: Just say no!
This article is reprinted from the June 26, 2008, issue of the Baptist Message, the newsjournal of the Louisiana Baptist Convention.
Further Learning
Learn more about: Family, Living, Health, Sexual Purity, Homosexuality
10 comments (post your own) feed
1 On Jul 3rd, 2008, at 8:35am, Dan Valdes wrote:
Ms. Boggs states..
“It seems that HIV ‘is a gay disease.’” and while she is correct that HIV is once again on the rise among MSM, particularly among young men and minorities, it must also be pointed out that during 2006 alone, an estimated 2.1 million adults and children died as a result of AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Since the beginning of the epidemic more than 15 million Africans have died from AIDS.2 nearly all from heterosexual contact.
It’s perhaps not convenient for her to be so forthright in her essay but AIDS affects everyone and for her to try to moralize a disease like this, it is really beneath the Baptists as emissaries of the gospel.
2 On Jul 3rd, 2008, at 11:13am, Dam Va;ldes wrote:
Mr. Boggs writes..."How should society respond to a behavior – a lifestyle choice – that places those who engage in the behavior at a high risk for poor health and grave disease?”
and that phrase “lifestyle choice” always signals some kind of red flag to me about those using it....especially with the additional vitriol used by Mr. Boggs in this essay.
I personally haven’t made ANY choices regarding my sexuality and wouldn’t think that Mr. Boggs has either.
Perhaps he would be willing to share with the readers about his choices regarding his sexual attractions and how he has chosen to live a heterosexual life instead of perhaps another choice he could have made...much like he might chose or elect to not pick up a drink or drug??
3 On Jul 4th, 2008, at 5:52am, Stephan Adelson wrote:
Here is the truth…
http://www.avert.org/worlstatinfo.htm
Worldwide 30.8 MILLION people live with HIV
At the end of 2007 2.6 MILLION of them were children
Around 11% are babies BORN with the disease
10% from drug injecting
5-10% occur in medical settings
5-10% of ALL infections are from sex between men
Sex between men and women account for about 2/3 of all infections.
Around half of the people who acquire HIV become infected before they turn 25 and typically die of the life-threatening illnesses called AIDS before their 35th birthday.
In the USA:
http://www.avert.org/usastatg.htm
The number of people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in the USA is over one million. This total increases by around 40,000 each year.
Around 48% of were probably infected with HIV through male-to-male sexual contact.
The number of heterosexual infections has increased dramatically.
Around 19% of all with AIDS have been female.
Around 9,144 under 13 years of age have been diagnosed with AIDS
4 On Jul 4th, 2008, at 7:45pm, David Asher wrote:
First I’d like to point out that I think that this article is very disturbing and obviously another fear tactic trying to drive people against homosexuals and their allies.
Type II diabetes is a much larger threat with ballooning infection rates, and it is a result of dietary and exercise choices (at least for the most part). While HIV rates have largely stabilized. So why not right your article about diabetes?
Secondly the idea that homosexual men account for 2% of the population isn’t accurate since no such accurate statistic exists for that.
It is true that HIV is more like to spread through anal sex. Homosexual men, for obvious reasons, practice this form of sex more than heterosexual couples, but heterosexual couples DO get HIV as well.
5 On Jul 4th, 2008, at 7:59pm, David Asher wrote:
There are tons of STDs that result from sex that plague heterosexual couples, so the idea that homosexual sex is somehow dirtier for more dangerous is false. The safest thing to do, regardless of sexual orientation is to practice abstinence. This isn’t a reality for most people so a comprehensive sex education is your best bet. Invest in a condom and be safe. A big problem for the gay community is that sex education doesn’t exist for them in schools. Places like Planned Parenthood do offer education for homosexuals as well as health services but these places are under attack and budget pressure from conservatives. There is this false idea that condoms are to prevent girls from getting pregnant, but they also protect anyone engaging in sex from getting any form of a sexually transmitted disease. The gay community is probably more likely to have unprotected sex because they don’t have the proper information regarding safe sex.
6 On Jul 7th, 2008, at 8:10am, Roberta Sklar wrote:
This story is inaccurate. Mr. Foreman’s comments have not caused controversy within or “rattled” the lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) community. Yes, HIV is a gay disease, but we also know it’s a heterosexual disease; a disease that affects women and men, young and old.
Foreman was calling our community and the government to task for failing to respond to the growing rates of HIV infection among African Americans, particularly gay and bisexual men. By taking one snippet of his remarks out of context, you are missing the point entirely.
A full text of Foreman’s remarks can be found at http://www.thetaskforce.org/press/releases/prcc08_mfspeech_020808
Roberta Sklar
Communications Director
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
7 On Jul 9th, 2008, at 12:16pm, Patrick J Burwell wrote:
Deviance is not “a lifestyle choice”; Deviant behavior is just depravity born of a corrupted mind and heart of sin. All who violate the Ten Commandments are as depraved and corrupted.
The pervasiveness of AIDS/HIV among those who engage in the sin of sexual deviance reminds me of the Scripture that says your sins will find you out. It would appear, once again, that this is indeed true in the second worst sense. The worst sense being first and always foremost the sentence of Hell and the Eternal Lake of Fire; There is no worse punishment than this.
So, the question for you, reader, is how will you do on Judgment Day? Are you a “good” person? Are you good enough to enter Heaven?
Take the test and find out before it’s too late for you.
http://TheGoodPersontest.com
Patrick J Burwell/OnlyJesusSaves.com
8 On Jul 9th, 2008, at 3:51pm, Stephan Adelson wrote:
According to the bible you are not good enough, nor am I or anyone else.
It is only by GRACE that anyone sees the face of God.
go ahead - throw the first rock.
According to this same bible - sin is sin in the eyes of God - your judgments are just as great a sin as anything else.
9 On Jul 10th, 2008, at 8:52am, Patrick J Burwell wrote:
What does the Bible say about homosexual behavior and gay marriage?
Study the following verses:
* Genesis 2:18–25
* Leviticus 18:22
* Mark 10:6
* Romans 1:26–27
* 1 Timothy 1:9–10
1 Corinthians 6:9–10
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
but, as I said, there is freedom for those who repent and entrust themselves to Jesus to save them.
You CAN be FREE if you want to be…
Patrick J. Burwell/OnlyJesusSaves.com
10 On Jul 17th, 2008, at 8:16am, Stephan Adelson wrote:
Luke 18:
10Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11The Pharisee took his stand ostentatiously and began to pray thus before and with himself: God, I thank You that I am not like the rest of men--extortioners (robbers), swindlers [unrighteous in heart and life], adulterers--or even like this tax collector here.
12I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I gain.
13But the tax collector, [merely] standing at a distance, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but kept striking his breast, saying, O God, be favorable (be gracious, be merciful) to me, the especially wicked sinner that I am!
14I tell you, this man went down to his home justified (forgiven and made upright and in right standing with God), rather than the other man; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.