I feel the need to speak out to you all about the new strain of HIV in NYC and what it means to the community. But also about the media's portrayal of the entire thing. And by media I mean the NYtimes since even though I am an avid watcher of CNN and MSNBC, I am yet to see the story on their news coverage. Which is pathetic in itself and horrifying. And I don't mean just a little blurb rolling across the tv screen either. I want a some serious time spent on the issue. The NYtimes is the only real media outlet that is carrying the story at this point, minus some gay blogs and gay media outlets. And that is just not good enough even though they are beating the story to death. Which is good being that the story is about a drug resistant super strain of HIV/AIDS.
The NYtimes and most gay media outlets however have pointed at the crystal meth usage in the gay community, the circuit parties, and recreational users about how all of the "partying" leads to unsafe sex and is one of the leading causes and serious concerns of this new strain of HIV. (which is resistant to all drugs at this point and quickly brings you if HIV positive to AIDS in a few months) Even though I think the gay community is facing its own battle with the "partying" scene, I don't think it is the leading concern at this point on why there is some new strain of HIV. I think the concern, which I have talked about before on my blog, is that a large portion of the gay community seems to care less about HIV at this point. I am not just speaking of 19yo's (however they are certainly among this crowd) but also up to 30 something year olds and slightly older. The Times quoting people saying, "I will just take the drugs," unfortunately doesn't sound to foreign to me. I am not being age-ist here but I think a lot of the community has forgotten the horrific impacts of HIV and AIDS. And, I am honestly, tired of the whole "pointing fingers" within the community and outside of it. Some case points that I feel I should make. I have met at least a handful more like two handfuls of boys who have without questions or raising concerns (or honestly any sentence) attemped to fuck bare, swallow, get swallowed, or get fucked bare. All of these are on different occasions, some partying, most not, some guys were my age, some were not; all of which is the even more the horrifying part of the story. Why is it that kids my age have totally forgotten about this huge health crisis? And furthermore, why is it that guys (since some of these moments were not right around my age) have also forgot about it or not care about it or whatever the fuck there issue is? I can get the idea that bare sex is hotter but seriously folks.. on a random hookup.. it is suicide. And when I have a moment where you try to take the unsafe sex route, I am totally turned off from you being next to me. I am not trying to be harsh, I am trying to be realistic.
What is GOING ON !?
Would you laugh if I tell you that I've been practicing celibacy for awhile now? Well, I am. But to answer your question about people feeling lax towards this STILL major crisis, well I guess most of them don't care. They figured, there's a handful of drugs out there. But they still don't realize it's not the cure. I don't want to sound preachy now, so I'll end my comments here.
Posted by: Groove | February 22, 2005 at 11:24 AM