Proceed at your own risk

AIDS: THE OTHER STORY

You think you've heard it all.  Well, you haven't.

Media and most "mainstream" AIDS patient advocacy groups’ attention focus on the HIV positive population--mortality, morbidity, infection rates, vaccines and homosexuality.

But there is another struggling population in bondage to this almost 30-year-long epidemic: a grossly underserved, mostly neglected and often suffering population that is actually larger in numbers and much more diverse than the HIV and AIDS population itself.

We’re talking about the HIV negative at home caregiver; and it is a story that is mostly untold and a population that is almost entirely ignored.   But it is a population of men, women and children, families, parents, grandparents, spouses and friends who are living in perpetual secrecy, fear, anxiety and financial chaos.

These are the HIV negative family members, partners and friends who struggle with far more than any other kind of caregiver of any other kind of patient.

Tragically, even though the epidemic has been known for over a quarter century, stigma and fear remain a major hindrance to education, prevention, treatment and care giving--but caregiving is the most burdened.

Like many of the long-term spouses of a gay man or woman just coming out, the AIDS patient caregiver is ill-prepared for the homophobia, the prejudice, the contempt and the cruelty that most AIDS patients come to expect—oftentimes long before infection even becomes known.   It goes with the terrritory.

HIV caregiving is unusually challenging and complex for the parent, sibling, friend or even child who has to deal with neighbors, extended families, health care providers, social workers, pharmacy clerks, housekeepers, home health care aides, employers—to name but a few situations.

Beyond the normal challenges of care giving, the stigma of HIV and AIDS contributes to an inordinate incidence of depression and stress among caregivers.   And while little has been done to address this problem, it is nonetheless well-document and too often seen among mental health professionals.

In many cases the problem is crippling to the degree of failed care giving, families simply falling apart at the seams and treatment plans falling between the cracks.

Today, many AIDS patients die or end up homeless simply because of a failed home care-giving dynamic.  And who can blame the caregiver?  Ordinary men and women more abandoned and sidelined by our society and the health care system than the AIDS patients themselves.

It's also worth nothing that New York City's largest (by far) health care organization serving the HIV/AIDS patient population reports that in 2009 over 40% of the organization’s HIV/AIDS population is 55 years and older--over 10% are 65 and older and an increasing number of patients are moving into the 70s and even 80s.

And in this older population, care giving needs become even more complex--demanding and time intensive with the onset of the customary health issues of aging piled on top of the HIV/AIDS issues.  And who is caring for the caregiver? Almost no one.

Ironically, the special needs and challenges of HIV/AIDS caregivers is well understood by both mental health professionals and AIDS professionals; and yet there is a tragic paucity of educational materials, support programs and care giving for the caregivers.

Furthermore, ask any informed clinician and he or she will tell you that a failed or dysfunctional home care giving situation for a person living with HIV/AIDS is a major risk factor for failed treatment and statistically significant highest rates of morbidity and mortality--so neglect of this issue leaves yet another gaping hole in effective care for people living with AIDS.

I spoke with several experts and came up with this list of issues that routinely challenge the AIDS caregiver.

• Caregivers are mostly living in secrecy and shame, closeted so-to-speak--this takes an even worse toll among minority families.
• HIV/AIDS care giving requires candid and open discussions of drugs and sexuality--issues that many folks are ill-prepared to tackle in this Evangelical, puritanical and homophobic society.
• Fear of disclosure—telling others outside of the home.
• Misinformation about HIV/AIDS in the elderly fuels fear of contagion and the terminally ill.
• Possible guilt for not preventing child/ partner's homosexuality or drug use.
• Managing anger at the sick person.
• Positive and negative responses to going public--finding a sense of community.
• Living assertively and politically active--not dominant issues for caregivers of other illnesses.
• Caregiver’s serostatus and health needs--they are at greater risk for stress while needing greater psychological resources.
• Seriousness of patients’ illness and the amount of caregiver time and duties required by the patient for activities of daily living.
• The sense of burden on the caregiver, psychological resources required, disruption of life style of caregiver, disruption of family dynamic and relationships.
• Chronic depression
• Periods of extreme distress, grief, despair, hopelessness, and helplessness.
• Anger and anxiety may accompany depression--anger directed against the disease and the stigma.
• Loneliness and social isolation related to the stigma.
• Loneliness also associated with social isolation in giving care and the loss of mutuality and reciprocity because of functional dependence, cognitive decline, general weakness and pain.
• Sleep problems
• Care givers of younger patients may experience more anger and sleep disturbance.

Obviously this is a long and complicated list, but it comes from some of the leading experts on this issue within New York City’s professional caregiving for caregivers community.

I was recently asked what I do outside of blogging.  This is one of my personal causes, one which takes much of my time.  Caregiving for caregivers is grossly underfunded, mostly ignored and often trivialized.

This past weekend I spent some hours at Bailey-Holt House, established in 1986 as the nation's first congregate care facility for financially vulnerable people living with AIDS--located on Christopher Street overlooking the Christopher Street Pier. 

Bailey-Holt occupies a facility that was during the 1970s a luxury hotel and rooftop restaurant called River House. At that time one of the restaurant's allures was that you could watch the shadowy figures of men cruising and having sex on the Christopher Street Pier while you dined on gourmet cuisine. 

I recall dining in this restaurant several times.  Someone would spot activity and diners would rush to the floor to cieling windows for a peep.  No one realized at the time that we were watching the birth of one of history's most horrific public health crises.

I thought of this recently when a local public relations firm was criticized for having underwear-clad and nude models stand in windows of the new Standard Hotel in order to scandlize and shock visitors to the new High Line Park. 

Press coverage was through the roof--much as it was when River House used sex on the pier to build its reputation.  After three decades, little has changed.  The press is still ignoring the real news and the people who so badly need their help.  People are still more concerned with glimpses of naked strangers than they are with broken hearts, broken families and thousands of unnecessary deaths.

If you want to provide financial help for organizations that support HIV/AIDS caregivers, send me an email and I will provide you with the necessary information.

You can also use the PayPal link on this page. Include a notation: "Family Care Services" and I will see to it that your contribution is put to good use.  I cannot directly link to the organization's website from the PAYOR site because of all those naughty photos that you make me post in order to get you to read the good stuff.

ORAL FIXATION

SOCIETY TALKS, CHILDREN DIE

Scientists, even social scientists rarely venture beyond the clearly defined measures and parameters of a study or a laboratory to consider the bigger picture.  This is understandable and mostly appropriate--as it applies to the basics of credible and accurate science.  A credible study has clearly defined controls that may very well lead to other questions and areas of study, but scientists will mostly not speculate beyond the hard data, no matter how clear the path.

I, however, am not so constrained.

A new study from no less an authority than the American Academy of Pediatrics confirms the obvious--that gay children rejected by their families suffer a dangerously high incidence of psychological and emotional damage.  In too many cases the result is suicide.

However, the study fails to consider the role in this nightmarish crime of child abuse played by our political, medical and religious leadership.

The study points a finger at the parents; and while I'm all for blaming parents for this crime, parents are nothing more than infantry.  They are not the masterminds behind this evil.  It is high time to demand responsibility from the generals in this war against gay children.

For the first time, mainstream and unimpeachableresearchers have established a clear link between rejecting behaviors of families towards lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) adolescents and negative health outcomes in early adulthood.

The findings have just been published in the January issue of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, in a peer-reviewed article titled “Family Rejection as a Predictor of Negative Health Outcomes in White and Latino Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Young Adults.”

The paper, authored by Dr. Caitlin Ryan and her team at the César E. Chávez Institute at San Francisco State University, confirmsthat parents’ rejecting behaviors towards their LGB children dramatically compromises their health.  The researchers do emphasize that the study most certainly has far reaching implications for changing how families relate to their LGB children and how LGB youth are served by a wide range of providers across systems of care.

But the study does not address critical facts that render even prestigious American Academy of Pediatrics research too little and too late for hundreds of thousands of gay children across this nation whose lives are in the process of being destroyed or have already been destroyed.  For these children among us now, with each discussion, with each debate, another day of their childhood is stolen and another life is lost as this nation decides how much science is necessary to criminalize criminal behavior.

How many studies will it take for the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association to determine that the imposition of reparative therapy, abandonment in the name of religion and outright physical abuse targeting gay children is nothing more or less than criminal child abuse?  How many statistics on homelessness, suicide, substance abuse and disease will it take?

We know that religious rhetoric targeting children within an Evangelical family does great harm.  We can spend another decade confirming this statistically and scientifically but in the name of religious freedom we continue to toss society's responsibility to its young out the window like kitchen waste.  Every time Obama's new pal Rick Warren opens his mouth, another evangelical is empowered to kill the soul of an American child. 

In the words of one influential "cleric":  " If their lifestyle were not by choice, God would not call homosexuality a sin. "God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind" (Numbers 23:19). The good news is that people who are caught up in this sin can change and free themselves with the help of God.  Stephen Bennett was a homosexual man. He has been happily married to his wife Irene for over 15 years. They have two wonderful children. The Bennett family has traveled the world sharing the Lord's story of redemption and forgiveness. God is the re-creator of lives and true change."

Again, how many studies do we need to move this society to take action in the face of this kind of pervasive and profound child abuse; this is a war between science and superstition.  Gay children are the casualties, the wounded, maimed and killed.

When do we open a mainstream national dialog on the horrific damage that is done to children by parents who are being misled and manipulated by hate-mongering, dishonest and corrupt "leaders" masquerading as Christians, Republicans and arguably "bridge-building" or "economy-distracted" Democrats?

When do we initiate preventive medical interventions in schools and in pediatrician's offices to identify victims of homophobia-caused child abuse as we have done with most other forms of child abuse?  What will it take for pediatricians, emergency room personnel, teachers and other caregivers to start calling in social services to counsel parents who abuse their children in this manner; and even, in extreme cases, remove gay children from abusive parents regardless of how many times they shout the name  of Jesus?

“For the first time, research has established a predictive link between specific, negative family reactions to their child’s sexual orientation and serious health problems for these adolescents in young adulthood—such as depression, illegal drug use, risk for HIV infection, and suicide attempts,” said Dr. Ryan, PhD, Director of the Family Acceptance Project and lead author of the paper.

“The new body of research we are generating will help develop resources, tools and interventions to strengthen families, prevent homelessness, reduce the proportion of youth in foster care and significantly improve the lives of LGBT young people and their families.”

Among the major findings:

• LGB young adults who reported higher levels of family rejection during adolescence were 8.4 times more likely to report having attempted suicide, 5.9 times more likely to report high levels of depression, 3.4 times more likely to use illegal drugs, and 3.4 times more likely to report having engaged in unprotected sexual intercourse, compared with peers from families that reported no or low levels of family rejection.
• Latino males reported the highest number of negative family reactions to their sexual orientation in adolescence. “This study clearly shows the tremendous harm of family rejection, even if parents think they are well-intentioned, following deeply held beliefs or even protecting their children," said Dr. Sten Vermund, a pediatrician and Amos Christie Chair of Global Health at Vanderbilt University.

"In today's often hostile climate for LGBT youth, it is especially important to note that both mental health issues like depression and suicide and HIV risk behaviors were greatly increased by rejection. Given the ongoing HIV epidemic in America, in which half of all new cases of HIV are found in men who have sex with men and there is growing concern about prevention messages reaching young people, it is vital that we share these findings with parents and service providers who work with youth in every way" Vermund continued.

"When put to practical, day-to-day use and shared with families and those who serve LGBT youth, these findings will lead to healthier, more supportive family dynamics and better lives for LGBT young people," Vermund concluded. The prevailing approach by pediatricians, nurses, social workers, school counselors, peer advocates and community providers has focused almost exclusively on directly serving LGBT youth, and does not consider the impact of family reactions on the adolescent’s health and well-being.

The researchers identified specific practices by parents that are directly responsible for harm to their children.

Parents "...try to change their gender identity, forbid them from spending time with a gay friend, not let them have access to information about what it's like to be a gay, lesbian or bisexual person."  In some cases, parents wouldn't stand up for their children when they had problems at school, Ryan said. "Their parents would say, 'Of course that's going to happen to you.'  They'll blame the victim."

I applaud the Family Research Project and it's considered plan to engage in additional research and discussion, but as drug studies are often terminated quickly so that critical new therapies can be provided to desperate patients with no other remedy at hand, shouldn't a similar approach be considered for the legions of gay children whose lives are being destroyed now?

Reparative therapy must be condemned as abusive and destructive.  To tolerate it even one more day--and of course we will--is a national shame and a cruel betrayal of the Hippocratic Oath by the American medical community.

To deny comprehensive nurturing reality-based sex education on sexual orientation for all children is a crime committed daily by thousands of school systems across this nation.  And to allow religion to trump responsible child care is an American crime that history may never forgive--and perhaps never should.

WHORES, THE NEW NURSES

Straight to the point: While John McCain, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the rest of our nincompoop politicians are spinning lies and propagating fantasies about solving America's health care crisis, I have come up with a solution.  Yup. I don't just rave and rant about problems; I also solve them.   Hollywood legend Ernest Borgnine, who you likely thought was long dead provides the centerpiece of the Rothstein plan from the perspective of a 91-year-old man, Borgnine not me.

The Rothstein Health Care Plan for America will drastically reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease including heart attacks and stroke.  My plan will cut the incidence of certain cancers, obesity and obesity-related diseases like diabetes by as much as a third and possibly even 50 percent.  And best of all, leaving us much more money to spend on Empire building, the Rothstein Plan will slash health care expenditures by at least 50%--and within a couple of years.

And last, but clearly not least, my plan will deliver a substantial reduction in crime and prison populations.

The solution to America's health care crisis starts with the legalization of prostitution.  Whores are the new nurses.  And best of all, under my plan the cost of hiring a whore will be covered and reimbursed by private insurance, Medicare and Medicaid.  Managed care organizations will become the pimps.  Rentboy.com and Blue Shield will merge.  Elliot Spitzer will become the nation's new health care czar.

The funny thing is that I'm right. You think I'm joking, but my plan, unlike any plans suggested by either Democrats or Republicans is founded in science, fact and reality.

In fact, an effective deployment of male and female prostitutes will do more for controlling health care costs and reducing mortality and morbidity than all the healthy diets, vitamin and mineral supplements, exercise videos and FDA-approved pharmaceuticals in the world.

Consider the facts:

1. Fucking is good for the heart.  According to a study at Queens University in Belfast, men who have sex three or more times a week can cut their risk of heart attack in half.
2. According to that same study, frequent orgasms will also halve a man's chances of suffering a stroke.
3. One 30-minute session of boringly vanilla sex burns 200 calories.  Half an hour on the treadmill burns about twice that but imagine the impact of a robust fantasy rape scene or a night in a Chelsea dungeon.  Routine orgies could make  diet pills obsolete.
4. Regular sex curbs irritability and stress, both known causes of many physical and mental infirmities.
5. Researchers at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania found that having sex once or twice a week boosts the immune system by 30 percent, resulting in the near elimination of colds and other viral and bacterial infections.
6. According to research conducted at Scotland's Royal Edinburgh Hospital, an active sex life slows the aging process and can have as much impact on appearance as routine Botox treatments.
7. The negative health implications of insomnia are well documented, not to mention the side effects of commonly used pharmaceuticals.  Sex, however, naturally releases sleep-inducing endorphins8 with all the benefits of Ambien but none of the side-effects.
8. As we age, bladder control becomes an increasingly inconvenient and unhealthy issue.  Frequent sex tones the pelvic muscles that support your uterus, bladder, and bowel.
9. Post-orgasm, the body produces a massive and intense surge of oxytocin.  This "overload"  in turn releases endorphins, which help alleviate pain from arthritis, back pain, menstrual cramps and headache.
10. According to the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association, the more a man ejaculates, the less likely he is to develop prostate cancer.  Some studies have demonstrated a 50% decrease in the incidence of prostate cancer in men over 50 who experience just 2-3 orgasms per week.

The key to the Rothstein Plan is to provide free and easy access to sex for all Americans, including the elderly, even the frail elderly.  In this paradigm, prostitution takes on a radical new meaning.  Nursing home orderlies will be replaced by horny young boys and girls for pay.

Preventative medicine has always been viewed as too costly and limited by our nation's mostly non-compliant population.  We've yet to find a way to motivate most Americans to engage in regular exercise and pursue healthy and nutrient dense diets.  What better motivation than sex?  The decriminalization of prostitution and its clear relevance to preventative medicine may seem like a costly venture for the government and the private insurance industry but in fact the savings realized in the reduction of mortality and morbidity and the dramatic upsurge in quality of life among the elderly is likely too huge to even quantify.

   

THINKING OF KATIE

OBAMA, TEEN GIRLS AND SYPHILIS

I bet that headline got your attention.  But it's not quite as juicy as implied.

This is about truth, something very much out favor in the America of 2008.

We are overrun as a nation by lying politicians, corporate lackey journalists and culture-crushing obsessions with mentally ravaged and morally bankrupt celebrities; so we should kiss the ground when a public figure actually tells the truth.

Sadly, that is not the case.  We hate truth in America.

Geraldine Ferraro is catching heat for simply stating the truth.  And when truth conflicts with a political agenda, faith-based initiatives or some mass delusion or popular deceit we go loony tunes.

Everyone, including the man himself is up in arms because Ferraro stated the obvious, the truth.  Barack Obama is packaged goods at this point and little else. He has no experience and has done nothing during his freshman five minutes in the United States Senate.  One day, Obama might make a great leader but the only reason he is sweeping the primaries now is because he's black, charming and male.

Are we really supposed to believe that he's running off with 85 to 90 percent of the black vote because they know who he is and they admire his non-existent record? 

As an unknown white man he would not have been given the opportunity to speak before the Democratic Convention.  And as a junior senator from Illinois who has been in national politics for about ten minutes, he would never, as a white man, been a consideration for the presidential race.  He would never have been noticed by his own party and he would never have been noticed by the media.

I'm simply blown away by the hypocrisy of anyone who says Obama's race is not the reason he's where he is today.  Is that racist?  Oh, that may be "politically incorrect" to make that statement, but it's hardly racism. 

It is racist that people are voting for him for no reason other than his race.  And it is disgustingly dishonest and downright silly for any of us to pretend otherwise.  What does this have to do with Barack Obama as a person? Absolutely nothing.  But as a presidential candidate, it has everything to do with race.

I also believe that if Obama had half the guts and honesty of Ferraro, he'd agree with her, point out that it is what it is and then move us beyond it with some critical thinking and analysis.  Instead, he uses it to play the victim.  Sad, but typical of our politicians.

And it is what it is and just because most of us don't want to face the fact that we're a bunch of superficial nincompoops, doesn't change the truth.

Furthermore, give Hillary a penis and where would she be?  Of course, that would make Bill a big old queer and he never would have been electable.  But Hillary is no great shakes as a leader either and is where she is because she's a woman and married strategically well.  Is she now standing her own ground?  Absolutely, but it's ground she wouldn't be standing on had she not been a woman and associated with one of the most influential men on earth.

The media and the politicians are spinning this out to portray Ferraro as a left wing liberal turned evil racist in the blink of an eye .  To shut everyone up, Ferraro has quit her post on the Hillary train but instead of going quietly into the night she's told everyone to go fuck themselves.  Good for her.

So what else have we learned about truth this week?  We learned that thanks to the Republican abstinence-only, faith-based "sex" education program forced on American schools by our President who hasn't uttered one word of truth since he was child, over 26 percent of American teenage girls are infected with sexually transmitted diseases.  After almost eight years of Christian no sex education we now have the most disease ridden young female population in the Western world.  Yes, fuck truth.

But what's the got to do with me, you ask?   

This is a queer blog after all.

Well, in other news from the Centers for Disease Control, we also learned that when the Christian Right slams us for living a dangerous lifestyle, having shorter life spans and a higher incidence of disease, they are, in fact right.  But we may be queers but we're also Americans who hate truth as much as teen girls hate safe sex.  So rather than face an important mental and physical health crisis that is doing serious harm to a large percentage of the gay population, we turn our backs on truth and hide behind Evangelical homophobia.

In fact, the U.S. syphilis rate rose for the seventh straight year in 2007, driven by a relentless surge in cases among homosexual and bisexual men, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported yesterday.

Since 2000, when the national syphilis rate sank to a low of 2.1 per 100,000 people after a decade of progress in the 1990s (under the Clinton administration--a time when efforts where being made to provide useful sex education and effective public health STI prevention campaigns) the rate has soared by 76 percent, the CDC reported.

Homosexual and bisexual men accounted for 64 percent of syphilis cases in 2007, up from about 5 percent in 1999.

CDC officials expressed concern not only because the recent increases in this bacterial sexually transmitted disease follows years of declines, but also because syphilis can elevate a person's risk of being infected with the AIDS virus and the odds of giving it to someone else.

"Having multiple sex partners and other high-risk behaviors like not using condoms do put you at higher risk for HIV and syphilis," CDC epidemiologist Dr. Hillard Weinstock told the press.

"Syphilis can increase the likelihood of HIV transmission two to fivefold. And CDC recommends that sexually active men who have sex with men get tested for syphilis, HIV and other STDs at least annually," Weinstock added.

In the meantime, politically correct gay pundits advocate sero-sorting and bare-backing.  We "politicize" fucking at the expense of our health, make ourselves sick and then slam the Christian Right for accusing us of fucking at the expense of our health, making ourselves sick.

So, boys and boys, what have we learned today?

Obama's race has  nothing to do with his trendiness and anyone who says otherwise is a racist.

Abstinence-only faith based "sex" education works and anyone who says otherwise is going to Hell.

And the soaring rate of syphilis among gay men is Evangelical propaganda.

Fuck truth.  I'm an American.  My sympathies to Diogenese in his never-ending search for an honest man.  He might have done better looking for an honest woman.   He wisely preferred dogs.

MRSA: ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY

Unless you're hiding from the news media (something I would fully understand),  you already know that some members of the mainstream press and, by today, the entire Christian press corps are predicting the second coming of a gay epidemic.

A study just published in the prestigious and influential medical journal, Annals of Internal Medicine discloses that sexually active gay men in San Francisco were 13 times as likely to contract methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a drug-resistant strain of bacteria, than their heterosexual counterparts.

On the heels of recent increases in both HIV infections and syphilis among men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM),  public health officials and the general public are once again going to be pointing very judgmental fingers.  Gay men are the portal to some new horrible disease that could spread from our aberrant and marginalized world into the general population.

The headlines and hate have already started.

One credible medical news service, WEBMD, is cleverly bundling the gay diseases. 

"MRSA KILLS MORE AMERICANS THAN AIDS"

One of our leading homophobes and darling of FOX News, Peter LaBarbera hasn't wasted any time and is already out and about with his message of compassion and reason.

"It is unfathomable that after that plague [AIDS], disease specialists and the media are now surprised at the correlation of new infections with homosexual behavior, LaBarbera explains.  "Wake up, medical and political establishment: homosexual behavior is unhealthy — no matter how many secular sermons you preach against “homophobia.”  Due to liberal political correctness, which insists on treating aberrant — even deadly — behaviors and lifestyles as a “civil right,” we as a society don’t seem to have learned much from the AIDS pandemic."

LaBarbera has issued a four point action plan to stop the spread of MRSA.

1. All schoolchildren must be taught that there are special health risks associated with homosexual behavior and that they should “just say no” to homosexuality.
2. The news media must make the common-sense connection between these frequent stories about (male) homosexual behavior and disease and that it's probably not smart for society and pop culture to celebrate homosexuality and bisexuality.
3. We need a concerted government effort--akin to the current anti-smoking campaigns--to reign in homosexual promiscuity--beginning with closing down all sex businesses (bathhouses) that facilitate homosexual perversion.
4. We must condemn behavior that is closely linked to death and disease, offering healthy alternatives like abstinence and ex-gay therapy.

None of this hate mongering comes as a surprise but we owe to ourselves to ignore it and focus on what matters.

The most challenging part of the new statistics on MRSA is that we, as a community, must put aside our own pride, our own prejudices and our fear of how this will be used against us by the Christian right and ask ourselves the hard questions about how we can contain it, reverse the trend and protect our young.

We cannot deny that Andrew Sullivan and other influential advocates of barebacking and sero-sorting are partly responsible for the increase in the spread of infectious diseases within the gay community, especially among gay men under 30.

And we cannot deny that the politicization of promiscuity as a gay right has also contributed to the problem.

And we cannot fear facing this health crisis head on regardless of the Religious Right's huffing and puffing.  The Big Bad Wolf is on the prowl and there's nothing we can do about that, but we can choose to build our house with bricks rather than straw.  And facts, self-awareness and honesty make for good solid bricks.

Yes, some of the questions that we must ask ourselves in a public forum will be used against us and some of the discussion will play into the hands of the Christian Right, but that in no way should inhibit the vital and critical process of not having another AIDS crisis and AIDS-like hysteria on our hands.

First of all, promiscuity, anonymous sex, bad hygiene, barebacking and sero-sorting are at best risky and generally unhealthy practices, regardless of ones sexual orientation.  These are not anti-gay claims, they are facts.  And while many of us may choose to engage in promiscuous and anonymous sex, it is ridiculous to confuse it with sexual freedom, diversity and gay rights.  Sexual promiscuity is fun, diverting and easy, much like binge eating, chain smoking, drinking to excess and snorting meth.  But like all excessive behavior, there are consequences, many bad and some very, very bad.  You can certainly go into denial and pretend otherwise, but to associate excessive and harmful behavior with political, civil and human rights is somewhere between childish self-indulgence and pathological self-destruction.

At the risk of pissing most of you off, I'm suggesting that fucking indiscriminately and without limits is as deliciously wonderful and as potentially unhealthy as a daily diet of several chocolate cakes, binging until you're ready to vomit or just collapse from exhaustion.

Is it fair that we can't enjoy the pleasures of flesh against flesh sans latex with wild abandon? Is it fair that we must use condoms during anal sex?  I won't even answer that question because fair has nothing to do with it.  Its about sensible and mature choices.

Life isn't about fairness, but it is about choices.

It is criminal and revolting to see the Christian Right use MRSA against us as a moral and political statement; but it would be equally as criminal for us to ignore facts that seriously threaten the health and well-being of our community.

Knowing that this will seem heretical to many of you, we must consider that eating is natural, binging is a disorder.  Sex is natural, but, again, binging is a disorder.  And disorders have negative health consequences.

I understand eating to fill an emotional void and I understand fucking to forget all the crap going on in life.  I also understand fucking as an act of defiance and spite. I also know how good meth can feel.  But these are not political statements they are maturity and mental and physical health issues; and if we allow the nonsense spewed by the Religious Right to influence an objective approach to containing and stopping a MRSA epidemic we will find ourselves reliving the 80s and early 90s in every awful terrible way, including a growing fear in the general population that queers can kill and the homosexual lifestyle is a disease-ridden thing.

Of course, this is nonsense, the majority of gay men are living perfectly ordinary lives of moderation and common sense, but the sexually promiscuous minority captures the headlines and sadly defines us in the eyes of mainstream America.  It's an awful and unfair thing, but it is what it is and we must not let it interfere with whatever steps must be taken within our own community to reverse this awful new statistic on MRSA.

And if we must assign blame, let us look at the public health policies of George W. Bush.  Bush put a stop to effective sexual health education and replaced it with abstinence and faith-based initiatives, subverting reason and common sense with fantasy and superstition.  The result has been a dramatic rise in teen pregnancy, soaring sexually transmitted infection rates among heterosexuals and homosexuals and the rise of new drug-resistant super bugs.  And homophobia, driven by the Bush administration has done real damage to the self-esteem of millions of young gay men and women, giving rise to increased rates of depression, suicide, substance abuse and sexual misbehavior.  And in the midst of this nonsense, too many gay pundits have advocated unsafe sex for a variety of personal and political reasons. 

So at the end of the day, we are once again in terrible trouble.   And again, we must not allow fear of homophobia and fear of hysteria stop us from making an honest appraisal of what's wrong and what kind of messages we need to advocate on behalf of good health, physical and mental within the queer community.

The Christian Right will hammer away at this; we must ignore them even if we find ourselves using language that seems to support some of their ridiculous views.  MRSA is or is not as much about the gay community as the rising stats on underage teen pregnancy are or are not about heterosexual women.