Gay-Marriage Bans Increase HIV Infection Rates

Via Gay News Blog:

According to an Emory University study, increases in HIV infection rates can be tied to the atmosphere of intolerance that surrounds bans on same-sex marriage. The Southern Voice quoted a press release stating:

“In the first study of the impact of social tolerance levels toward gays in the United States on the HIV transmission rate, the researchers estimated that a constitutional ban on gay marriage raises the rate by four cases per 100,000 people.” 

This makes sense. When HIV/AIDS was first spreading like wildfire through the gay community it was in a country that still persecuted gays. People were made to feel like they had to hide what they were and what they did. That sort hostile environment leads to risky behavior. 

Hugo Mialon, one of the economists who conducted the research said, "Intolerance is deadly. Bans on gay marriage codify intolerance, causing more gay people to shift to underground sexual behaviors that carry more risk."

HIV Infection Rate Increasing in China

The Telegraph published an article March 30 that indicated incidences of new HIV infection have increased 45 percent recently in China. The article said 45,000 people in mainland China were infected in the first nine months of 2008. 

From the Telegraph:

"This is a nationwide tragedy," said Dr Jiang Hua, one of China's delegates to the United Nations general assembly on Aids.

"I don't think many people understand how soon this plague will hit the Chinese people."

According to Dr Jiang's calculations, the disease is spreading rapidly through gay men in China's cities. In Chongqing, the largest city in the world with 32 million people, the data for last year showed 20 per cent of gay men have Aids. In Chengdu, a city the size of London, Dr Jiang calculates that the infection will hit 35 per cent by next year. In some smaller cities, the proportion has already hit 50 per cent, he added.

This comes despite the country spending hundreds of millions of yuan on HIV/AIDS prevention. As in many parts of the world where the disease is spreading, China's burgeoning infection rates are worsened by societal pressure to conform. Chinese men are expected to marry women and have families. The article indicated gay sex often takes place rapidly in clandestine locations. The men don't use condoms and more than likely don't get tested. This situation makes it easier to spread the disease not only among men who have sex with men, but also with their female sex partners. 

According to data from UNAIDS/WHO the numbers continue to get worse, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. There were two and a half million new cases of HIV worldwide in 2007. (And women account for half of the total number of HIV cases worldwide.) 

In the West, some fear HIV/AIDS will make a comeback especially due to the prevalence of "bareback" sex. It seems to me people still think of HIV as something other people get. When the US media first started talking about it, it was Gays, Haitians, hemophiliacs, and druggies. Now it's druggies, sex workers, and people in Africa. Many people out there aren't protecting themselves. But the disease is still out there. Fast and secret can be more dangerous than you know. 

Tuesday's Bitch

Via Joe. My. God.:

Pope Benedict thinks outdated interpretations of the Bible are more important than the lives of Africans.

From the NIV version of Genesis 38:

 ⁸ Then Judah said to Onan, "Lie with your brother's wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for your brother." ⁹ But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother. ¹⁰ What he did was wicked in the LORD's sight; so he put him to death also.

This is a passage commonly cited proving that God doesn't want you to use condoms. And this passage is one of the reasons Pope Benedict is advocating policies that will lead to the deaths of thousands of Africans. What, he's not happy killing off Catholic homos and encouraging Catholic high school kids to catch gonorrhea?

From IndyStar.com:

Benedict said the Roman Catholic Church is in the forefront of the battle against AIDS.

"You can't resolve it with the distribution of condoms," the pope told reporters aboard the Alitalia plane headed to Yaounde. "On the contrary, it increases the problem."

When will this irresponsible stance be stopped? Sure, in an ideal world abstinence would be a viable option for Catholics wishing to avoid HIV. But it isn't. In reality abstinence and abstinence education actually complicate the issue. People have sex. And if they aren't educated about the risks because they're only told about abstinence, they have unsafe sex. Unsafe sex leads to STIs. 

We don't live in a world where it's necessary to impregnate our sisters-in-law when our brother die. And we don't live in a world where we need to listen to a former Hitler Youth in gold Prada shoes telling us about how to live our lives. 

Out of Lube? Try Ice Cream

Everybody knows the use of lubricants can reduce the risk of condom breakage and thereby is a useful tool in ones arsenal against contracting HIV, right? In general lube seems to make the whole sex experience smoother anyway. And researchers have been studying some lubricants that might actually have a microbicidal effect. But the news that some lubes kill HIV is no reason to replace the use of condoms with Astroglide. 

Now researchers at the University of Minnesota have identified a compound that may actually reduce the risk of HIV transmission in women:

Yes this stuff, Glycerol monolaurate (The hip kids all call it GML) may actually help reduce new HIV infections in women. No word yet on weather or not this stuff might prevent men from catching HIV. But this is great news as HIV is still spreading like wildfire through heterosexual communities in many parts of the world, including Sub-Saharan Africa. 

The really bizarre part of it all is that this stuff is already a common ingredient in things like soap, cosmetics, and ice cream. That's right ladies and gentlemen and the rest of you. It's an already FDA-approved food additive. 

Who knew?