Comments on: HIV remains a gay disease http://www.washingtonblade.com/2010/09/23/hiv-remains-a-gay-disease/ the gay community's news source Sun, 19 May 2013 20:09:04 +0000 hourly 1 By: Justin B Terry-Smith http://www.washingtonblade.com/2010/09/23/hiv-remains-a-gay-disease/#comment-4887 Justin B Terry-Smith Tue, 28 Sep 2010 18:58:53 +0000 http://www.washingtonblade.com/?p=12622#comment-4887 Dan good job as usual :-)

]]> By: new yorker http://www.washingtonblade.com/2010/09/23/hiv-remains-a-gay-disease/#comment-4863 new yorker Mon, 27 Sep 2010 19:39:58 +0000 http://www.washingtonblade.com/?p=12622#comment-4863 KNOW your status, the majority of people disclose their known status, THE PEOPLE who don’t know an profess to be CLEAN can do the most harm.

if your having sex you need to get tested

]]> By: John-Manuel Andriote http://www.washingtonblade.com/2010/09/23/hiv-remains-a-gay-disease/#comment-4551 John-Manuel Andriote Fri, 24 Sep 2010 00:24:42 +0000 http://www.washingtonblade.com/?p=12622#comment-4551 This is a really thoughtful and important commentary, really on the mark in every way. One important reason not mentioned for the increasing new HIV infections among gay/bi men is this: Even HIV-positive gay men aren’t disclosing their status to each other. Advances in medical treatment mean that disclosure can be a matter of personal choice. Back in the earlier years of AIDS, gay men “came out” as HIV-positive just as they came out as gay: boldly, without shame or apology. Their openness helped the men themselves and it was a conscious gay political strategy aimed at destigmatizing the still highly stigmatized virus. Now many HIV-positive men take the attitude that having HIV is “none of your business.”

Another important shift is that the two largest national gay political organizations, HRC and NGLTF (especially HRC), have mostly handed off responsibility for HIV-related policy and advocacy to HIV/AIDS organizations. This makes some sense unless you know that, as this article makes so clear, gay and bisexual men are still the hardest hit by HIV–and that public funding for HIV prevention has consistently, since the start of the epidemic, given “men who have sex with men” short shrift. Studies have found as little as 5 percent of prevention dollars going for prevention efforts aimed at gay/bi men–even in states where they comprise 75 percent and more of the people with HIV living there. This isn’t likely to change without forceful advocacy by gay political groups. And that isn’t likely to happen so long as they, HRC in particular, realize and embrace the fact that the gay community in America is not made up of only middle-class gay white men.

I’ve gotten my information–and my own reminders of the fact that HIV is still very much a “gay disease”–as I’ve interviewed doctors, AIDS service organization directors, gay political activists, people with HIV, and others around the country for the new/revised edition of my 1999 book VICTORY DEFERRED: HOW AIDS CHANGED GAY LIFE IN AMERICA, to be published in 2011, the 30th anniversary of the AIDS plague.

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