It's undeniable that society has come a long way since the 1980s and 1990s. Guitars have built-in synth pads, hover-boards that don’t hover are a strangely popular fad, and, somehow, dabbing is a crucial part of most vines and youtube videos. Both technology and culture have changed over the past couple of decades, and now, more than ever, homosexuals are more involved with, and willing accepted into, society. If you were go back to the ‘80s and ‘90s, however, homosexuals would be ridiculed and defined by the “gay cancer” that plagued them. This “gay cancer”, now known as HIV, or AIDS, depending on what you are defining as the cancer itself, is now a worldwide epidemic and has been enveloped in lies and misunderstandings. Even now, people live in false fears of both HIV/AIDS and how it actually works. It is time, as a country, to analyze these misconceptions and clarify the neglected details about HIV/AIDS that have haunted, and still haunt, society.
To start off, we need to define HIV and AIDS, and what they both stand for. HIV is the human immunodeficiency virus and is the medium, or virus, physically involved in infecting people. When discussing HIV, it refers to the virus itself and terminology normally associated with a virus, such as infectivity, number of people infected, and so on.
AIDS is different, though. AIDS stands for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and is, as mentioned before, a syndrome, not something responsible for infection. A crucial part of your immune system is your CD4 lymphocytes. AIDS is when the concentration of CD4 lymphocytes in your body becomes lower than 200/mm3 (the average range is somewhere between 500-1600 for the average adult). The only other way to be diagnosed with AIDS is if you are diagnosed with many opportunistic infections (OIs), which are essentially diseases that would not infect you if your immune system was not so damaged. However, AIDS still refers to this stage of immunodeficiency, it is not the virus or the vector, and this is something many people have trouble understanding. People do not die of AIDS, they die from opportunistic infections, such as pneumonia, that present themselves while someone has this destroyed immune system.
Last year, I had the opportunity to see an HIV+ male, William Adams, discuss his experience with the disease and his experience as a part of Chattanooga Cares, a company focused on educating Tennesseans about HIV and offering free STD testing to people. I would like to discuss part of his lecture to help discuss why the paranoia of contracting HIV is overplayed to many extents.
He said:
“Everyone watch. As we speak, I am unscrewing a water bottle cap and afterwards, I plan to drink from it.” He then takes a sip. “Now, if I walk up to any of you and offer you water because you seem parched, I guarantee that none of you would share my water bottle with me. This is a perfect example of the misunderstanding America continues to envelop itself in relating to HIV. You cannot get HIV from saliva or sharing drinks. Yet, even after saying this, you all still look too timid to even consider my offer.”
At the time, even with plenty of background knowledge on HIV, I know that even I still seemed tense. We are raised in a society that promotes ostracizing people with HIV, and we cannot even teach ourselves and our children how contraction even occurs.
First, in sexual encounters with someone carrying HIV in America (since we are a high income country), the chances of contracting HIV can be as low as approximately 1 in 3000. There are exceptions, and there are a broad range of chances ranging from approximately 1 in 10 to 1 in 3000, depending on what stage of the HIV infection the person is in, and what type of intercourse you are performing. However, during intercourse with someone with an undetectable viral load, the chances are approximately 1 in 3000! 1 in 3000! I am not saying to go out and have sex with everyone you know with HIV, but I am saying that we don’t need to ostracize these people and constantly worry that being near them will infect us. On top of that, you can only contract HIV through 4 bodily fluids: vaginal secretions, semen, breast milk, and blood. With this in mind, at the end of the day, people with HIV are still humans--just like us! Hug them, kiss them, love them like you would your best friend, because I promise, they definitely cannot infect you through their saliva and they cannot infect you simply because you touched them.
Want to know something else interesting? Even though blood banks test all collected blood to make sure it is safe for transfusion, homosexual men still cannot donate blood. This ban was placed when HIV first appeared in America and it has not yet been removed. This is by far one of the most idiotic policies in present day America, and to understand why, I need to take you back to San Francisco and New York in the 1980s and 1990s.
When HIV first appeared in America, gay men were heavily discriminated against. However, this did not stop them from having their fun. Many areas of the two afore mentioned cities had bathhouses where gay men would go to have random and consistent intercourse, and these men were constantly partying. It was believed by the greater American population that these gay men were immoral and they were the only people living promiscuously. So, when HIV started appearing in the gay population, it was considered the “gay cancer” and was commonly attributed to factors such as these bathhouses. Soon following, gay people were banned from giving blood and the homosexual stigma arose.
Now, we need to look at the disease itself. First, let me assure you that homosexuals males do not have some absurdly high affinity for HIV infections as compared to other, heterosexual males (or females). The reason for the phenomena witnessed in the 1980s and 1990s is due to anatomy. The anal lining is very thin, therefore it is subject to tears. Anal intercourse is very abrasive and commonly leads to tears of this anal lining, exposing the bloodstream. Therefore, if someone is the recipient of anal sex from someone HIV-positive, the tear of the anal lining during sex allows the HIV present in the male ejaculate to enter the bloodstream without a fight, thus leading to a higher rate of infection. As you know, this can happen with both males and females, since people of both sexes are recipients of anal intercourse. The reason it was more prevalent in the homosexual male population when HIV first appeared is because anal sex was still somewhat taboo at the time. However, with sodomy now less censured than ever, this policy is completely discriminatory towards homosexual males. If they are not allowed to give blood, then no one that has ever received anal sex should be able to either. This policy to prevent fairness, needs to be abolished.
The last thing necessary to point out is how stigmatizing people are towards HIV-positive people, and their outlooks on life. Thirty years ago, if you were approached and told you had HIV or AIDS, you were essentially handed a death sentence. Now, in the 21st century, HIV is more manageable than ever, and people can live nearly full lives by taking medications. There is no need to harass people that are HIV-positive and tell them they deserved it or that their lives are coming to an end, because they are not.
Before I say this, please understand that I am not saying to go out and contract HIV. However, HIV is not armageddon. Be safe in all of your sexual encounters, and encourage communication between sexual partners, but if at any time you find yourself on the bad end of an STD test, understand that your life is not over. Medications to manage HIV and the viral load associated with the virus can extend lives to normal lifespans, and, with technology and biomedical advances, there is a chance it could be cured in the coming decade. Given all of that, there is no reason to stigmatize HIV. Prevent it, be aware of it, and be careful, but do not stigmatize.
As you walk away from this article, understand that there is lots of work to be done regarding misconceptions about HIV/AIDS everywhere. When HIV was first discovered, Dr. Gallo was not the main scientist responsible for the discovery, but he took credit anyway. In Africa, some populations believe that an old male can cure his HIV by having sex with a young virgin. In Thailand, foreigners, including Americans, are sleeping out with teenagers that have been sold to the prostitute market. There are so many preventative measures that need to be taken to decrease the effect of the epidemic, and there is so much that people need to learn before they can concentrate on specific areas and give them what they need to eradicate HIV.
Unfortunately though, the history of HIV/AIDS and the presence of HIV/AIDS in modern-day society are riddled with lies, misconceptions, and ignorance, and only when teaching occurs to the general population can we reverse this trend.
Suggested Further Reading/Viewing:
- Book: “The Anthropology of AIDS”
- Book/Movie: “And the Band Played On” (Randy Shilts is the author of the novel)
- Movie: “Rent”
Source:
