Topic: CDC on AIDS prevention: Talk about it and have sex (Read 524 times)

If you have 1000s of sexual partners in a lifetime, when do you have time for love?

Before the law went into affect for homosexuals to marry: Couples were living with each other if they loved each other enough to want to marry them. If they were still sleeping around after having found the one they love, they will continue to do so after the law is in place. Why should it be any different now?

The law in their heart should be the love they have for their mate, not the law of the land that decides whether they will cheat on their mate or not. Did they seriously blame the law for why they cheated on their mate to begin with?

Does the New York Times hate gays?

BEHAVIOR; A Clue to Why Gays Play Russian Roulette With H.I.V.



Most young gay and bisexual American men who were found to be infected with the AIDS virus in a recent study were unaware of their infection, according to a finding reported recently at the 14th International AIDS Conference in Barcelona by Dr. Duncan MacKellar, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study surveyed 5,719 men, ages 15 to 29, of whom 573 were discovered to be H.I.V.-positive. Of those 573 men, 77 percent did not know that they were infected. Despite having engaged in frequent high-risk sex like unprotected anal intercourse, most of these men still believed that they were at low risk of contracting H.I.V.

How can one explain such potentially fatal self-destructive behavior? After all, the route of H.I.V. transmission and safer sexual practices are well known.

''Knowledge has never been shown to be enough,'' said Dr. Robert L. Klitzman, an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and the author of ''Being Positive: The Lives of Men and Women With H.I.V.'' (Ivan R. Dee, 1997). ''Study after study shows that people have unsafe sex that puts them at risk of H.I.V. infection despite their knowledge of safe sex. Sex makes people do dumb things. And when you add in drugs and alcohol during sex, then judgment can be really impaired.''

Still, there is an aspect of this dangerous behavior that has eluded explanation: the strikingly self-destructive nature of unsafe sex. Why would anyone knowingly expose himself to a potentially lethal infection?

One possible answer is a phenomenon called internalized homophobia. Most everyone has heard of homophobia, which is a bit of a misnomer since phobia connotes fear and avoidance, while homophobia involves aversion and even hatred of gays. With internalized homophobia, the perpetrator and the victim are one and the same.

Dr. Richard C. Friedman (no relation), an author with Dr. Jennifer I. Downey of the new book ''Sexual Orientation and Psychoanalysis'' (Columbia University Press), describes internalized homophobia as a common and often serious psychological problem in gay men and women that lies at the root of many self-destructive behaviors, including risky sex.

''Many gay and lesbian individuals who are raised in a society like ours that disapproves of homosexuality will internalize those negative attitudes and values,'' Dr. Friedman said. ''Every time such a person feels sexual desire for someone of the same sex, he will experience shame, guilt and self-hatred without necessarily understanding why, because these feelings often operate on an unconscious level.''

Dr. Friedman gave an example of a gay patient who sought help for depression and sexual behavior that he labeled self-destructive. Without knowing why, he was having unprotected anal intercourse with multiple partners. In therapy, the patient revealed that his parents had been highly critical, abusive and homophobic. As a result, he always felt that they hated him because he was gay. His risky behavior arose from unconscious self-hatred.

This is not to say that internalized homophobia can explain all acts of unsafe sex; often, it probably takes no more than the ordinary lapses in human judgment. But two recent epidemiologic surveys in The Archives of General Psychiatry show that gay men and women are at higher risk of certain psychiatric disorders than heterosexuals.

In one study, Dr. Theo Sandfort of Utrecht University found higher rates of substance abuse in lesbians and of mood and anxiety disorders in gay men compared with heterosexuals. The other study, by Dr. Richard Herrell of the University of Illinois, examined suicide risk in identical male twins in which only one twin was gay. He found that gay men were 6.5 times as likely to have attempted suicide as their heterosexual twins, even after controlling for other psychiatric disorders and alcohol and drug abuse.

If gay men and women really have higher rates of certain psychiatric disorders than heterosexuals, it may reflect social and biological factors or a complex interaction. Though these studies did not assess homophobia, it may be that any increased prevalence of psychiatric disorders is due, at least in part, to homophobia and internalized homophobia. This is because other studies have found a strong correlation between experiences of stigma and the mental health of gay men and women.

But what makes some people homophobic in the first place? ''We know that homophobic people tend to be authoritarian, conservative and come from religious backgrounds which condemn homosexuality,'' Dr. Friedman said. ''They also have little or no contact with gay people.''

A provocative clue to the psychological origin of homophobia comes from a study of self-described homophobic and nonhomophobic heterosexual men by Dr. Henry Adams of the University of Georgia. The two groups were shown gay pornography while penile circumference was monitored. None of the nonhomophobic men had erections; the homophobic men did and but denied any subjective feelings of sexual arousal.

Does this mean that all homophobic heterosexual men are closeted gays themselves? ''It's clearly relevant for some of these men,'' Dr. Friedman said, ''but you can't generalize from such a small study.''

The origins of homophobia may be unclear, but the effects are widespread and vivid. Think of the common schoolyard bully who torments an effeminate child or the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard, the 21-year-old college student who was beaten to death in Wyoming just because he was gay.***

In 2000, for example, there were 1,299 reports of hate crimes based on sexual orientation made to the F.B.I. But the true prevalence of violence against gays is unknown; because it is not a federal violation, the F.B.I. has no jurisdiction to investigate.

Most people who disapprove of homosexuality are not violent. But when they are, what explains their aggressive behavior?

''The violent perpetrators are almost exclusively men who also have tremendous feelings of insecurity about their own masculinity,'' Dr. Friedman said. ''In brutalizing other men, they experience an enhanced sense of power and dominance.''


http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/24/health/behavior-a-clue-to-why-gays-play-russian-roulette-with-hiv.html


***http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/26/the-truth-behind-americas-most-famous-gay-hate-murder-matthew-shepard

^^^^ That is exactly the point. And the sad part is that the homosexuals are indulging in this sort of behavior, despite knowing about the risk which comes from it. On the other hand, most of the IDUs and heterosexuals who got HIV were not aware of the risks which can arise from their behavior.

According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the the estimated lifetime cost of treating HIV is $379,000 per person. So 50,000 new infections mean $19 billion in tax payer money every year. And trust me, that is almost equivalent to the annual tax revenues for a medium-sized country such as Ireland.

And these numbers from from the Kinsey Institute:

I have posted the facts many times here before, and you seems to have ignored them. OK... I'll post them once more.

Check the study by Paul Van de Ven.et al in 1997, which was published in The Journal of Sex Research.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3813477

(If you want the PDF, then drop me a PM).

According to this study, the modal range for number of sexual partners ever [of homosexuals] was in the 101 to 500 range. I know quite a few heterosexuals boasting more than 100 sexual partners, but as far as the heterosexuals are concerned, that is an anomaly, and not the norm.

Another study was done by Edward O. Laumann in 1994.

http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3626005.html

According to this study:

You think gay married couples will cheat and sleep around more than straight married couples?  Why?  You seem to really dislike gay people and suggest they are like sex addicts that have to sleep with everyone to be happy.

No matter how much they legalize the "gay marriage", the homosexuals will not suddenly become monogamous. They will continue to have sex with multiple partners (most of the time with complete strangers), and they will use their marriage status only to get the government benefits. And since AIDS is no longer a life-threatening disease in the United States, condom usage will continue to decline among this group, and more and more people will become HIV+ every year. Also, the new infections in the US currently outnumber the deaths from AIDS by a ratio of 4:1. And this will further increase the number of people living with HIV.

Gay marriages dominating and countries making it legal. I wonder how many people will have HIV/AIDS by 2020?

Over the last 30 years, HIV/AIDS has killed hundreds of thousands of people in America. Despite tremendous advances in medicine that allow victims of HIV/AIDS to live long, healthy lives, it is still a devastating disease that was diagnosed in nearly 14,000 people who died in 2012, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). And most of those men were what the CDC calls “men who have sex with men,” or MSM (a specific CDC label).

In fact, MSM “accounted for 78% of new HIV infections among males and 63% of all new infections” in 2010, despite making up, at most, four percent of the total U.S. population.

With these results, one might expect the CDC to issue a simple bit of advice to the gay male community: “Don’t engage in anal sex. It’s bad for you.”

Nope, not our politically correct friends at the CDC. Instead, as part of its “Act Against AIDS” campaign, the CDC put out a video a month ago that highlights people who are focused on stopping HIV/AIDS. One guy says he is “stopping HIV by blogging and speaking up about it,” a woman is “taking my HIV meds every day,” and an older man is “being open about living with HIV.”

Another person says he’s doing his part “by raising awareness through my poetry and arts.”

Last week, a similar ad on Pandora noted that for people with HIV/AIDS, their medicine stops working “every time you [have] risky sex.”

That ad depicted gay men in same-sex relationships, and told people with HIV/AIDS to “be strong.” (By talking about HIV/AIDS while using medication as you blog about art and engage in the riskiest sexual act possible?)

Such outstanding advice isn’t new. In 2013, I reported on the disturbing results of a CDC study:

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) shows approximately 62 percent of gay men who know they have HIV/AIDS continue to engage in sexual relations without using a prophylactic, a behavior that can spread AIDS.

The report, which was released on the Friday after Thanksgiving, analyzed data gathered in 2011.

According to the report, the percentage of men with HIV/AIDS having sex with other men without a condom had increased from 55 percent in 2005, to 57 percent in 2008, to 62 percent today.

The CDC’s advice? Get tested, use condoms, be honest with sexual partners, and don’t sleep around:

To fight this, the CDC recommended MSM reduce the risk of HIV by “choosing less risky behaviors, using condoms consistently and correctly if they have vaginal or anal sex, reducing the number of sex partners, and if HIV-positive, letting potential sex partners know their status.”

It also recommends annual testing for men having sex with men, and “taking pre-exposure or post-exposure prophylaxis” as protection for some men at high risk. It also encourages more frequent testing. One-third of MSM were unaware they had HIV while engaging in risky sexual relations.


At the time, I asked a CDC spokesperson why abstinence — which has a 100 percent STI avoidance rate — was not listed as a preventative option. She told me that “we do know that not having sex is the most reliable way to avoid infection, and we include that as a prevention option in our media materials.” She highlighted an August 2013 graphic from the CDC that promotes abstinence as the first of three measures to prevent MSM from contracting HIV/AIDS.

This week, a different spokesperson addressed my questions about the CDC’s new ads. According to the spokesperson:

Act Against AIDS features multiple communication campaigns designed to serve specific populations at highest risk of acquiring or transmitting HIV, including sexually active gay and bisexual men and African American women. And, for those who are sexually active, our campaign messages aim to communicate how they can reduce the risk of infection.

However, when asked broadly how someone can protect themselves from infection, we consistently indicate that abstinence is the only 100 percent effective strategy for preventing infection. And, again, for those who are sexually active, we provide information on how to reduce risk.


Maybe the only method of HIV/AIDS protection that is 100% effective — sexual abstinence — could be advocated first and foremost every time?

The CDC spokesperson wasn’t done:

The goal of Let’s Stop HIV Together – the campaign which contains the PSA you shared — is to raise awareness about HIV and to combat stigma. This ad is not intended to provide a full run-down of HIV and prevention, but rather to provide participants’ personal stories to raise awareness, fight stigma about HIV, encourage HIV prevention and testing, and champion the power of relationships in the personal and public fight to stop HIV.


I asked how the CDC defines stigma. The response:

Stigma and discrimination surrounding HIV and AIDS are still very real issues in the U. S. today — both fueled by myths, misinformation and misperception. Stigma is a major barrier to HIV testing, condom use and use of other effective, available prevention strategies.  It also discourages those living with HIV from seeking the care and treatment they need to stay healthy and avoid transmitting HIV to others.


While it is certainly true that monogamously engaging in sexual acts reduces the chances of contracting HIV/AIDS and other STIs — whether those relationships are same-sex or opposite-sex — it is disappointing to see the CDC take the LGBT activist approach to sexually-transmitted HIV/AIDS. Anal sex, which is an intrinsic part of male-to-male sexual relationships, is simply dangerous. The CDC should consider promoting this stigma part of its public duty.

It is a well-established fact that MSM are most at risk to contract HIV/AIDS in America. Next on the list are women with multiple sexual partners and people who use needles for drugs — two other extremely unhealthy activity choices that should be avoided, not patched over with testing, “protection,” or medicine.

It is a credit to human ingenuity and compassion that people who have contracted HIV/AIDS are able to live long lives. But the CDC’s timid approach to HIV/AIDS prevention is problematic in the extreme.

The best way to drastically prevent HIV/AIDS is the same one that has existed since the dawn of man: Sexual relations between one man and one woman, for life.


http://hotair.com/archives/2015/07/18/cdc-on-aids-prevention-talk-about-it-and-have-sex/