Why are gay men more at risk for HIV? - Greater Than HIV

Contents:

• HIV/AIDS AND EDUTN: LSONS OM THE 1980S AND THE GAY MALE COMMUNY THE UNED STAT
• AIDS: STILL A GAY DISEASE AMERI
• HIV IS NOT A GAY DISEASE
• WHY ARE GAY MEN MORE AT RISK FOR HIV?
• HIV IS A STORY FIRST WRTEN ON THE BODI OF GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN
• DISCRIMATN AND HOMOPHOBIA FUEL THE HIV EPIMIC GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN
• MYSTERY DISEASE KILLS GAY MEN – ARCHIVE, 1981
• HIV AND ALL GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN

HIV/AIDS AND EDUTN: LSONS OM THE 1980S AND THE GAY MALE COMMUNY THE UNED STAT

READ MORE: Panmics That Changed History: A TimeleThe AIDS Epimic Aris Though HIV arrived the Uned Stat around 1970, didn’t e to the public’s attentn until the early 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Preventn (CDC) published a report about five prevly healthy homosexual men beg fected wh Pnmocystis pnmonia, which is ed by the normally harmls fung Pnmocystis jirovecii. Bee the disease appeared to affect mostly homosexual men, officials ially lled gay-related immune ficiency, or the CDC disvered all major rout of the disease’s transmissn—as well as that female partners of AIDS-posive men uld be fected— 1983, the public nsired AIDS a gay disease.

The FDA would revise s l 2015 to allow gay men to give blood if they’ve been celibate for a year, though blood banks routely tt blood for the end of 1985, there were more than 20, 000 reported s of AIDS, wh at least one se every regn of the is Developed In 1987, the first antiretroviral meditn for HIV, azidothymide (AZT), beme available. HIV/AIDS the 1990s and 2000s In 1991, the red ribbon beme an ternatnal symbol of AIDS that year, basketball player Magic Johnson announced he had HIV, helpg to further brg awarens to the issue and dispel the stereotype of beg a gay disease. Origally intified as a “gay disease” bee gay men were one of the primary groups afflicted, HIV and the syndrome , Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, were unknown 1981 but had bee hoehold terms and the number one threat to public health by the late 1980s.

AIDS: STILL A GAY DISEASE AMERI

For several years after the Center for Disease Control first realized that the illns croppg up muni around the untry were all the work of the same vis, the Amerin ernment did ltle to addrs the epimic, a failure to act that many attribute to the fact that HIV/AIDS was primarily affectg gay men, traveno dg ers, immigrants and racial activists, medil profsnals, artists and a number of people wh AIDS who went public wh their diagnos spe the stigma surroundg the disease eventually spurred a massive rponse om the U. ” Although the headle would soon be proven false, his report that a number of gay men have been admted to New York Cy tensive re un wh severely promised immune systems is the first article to mentn what soon be known as 5, 1981 – The CDC publish an article scribg five s of a rare lung fectn young, otherwise healthy gay men Los Angel, two of whom have died and three of whom die a short time after.

This article is often ced as the official begng of the AIDS 1981 – An LGBT newspaper San Francis, The Bay Area Reporter, wr about “Gay Men’s Pnmonia” and urg gay men experiencg shortns of breath to see a doctor.

HIV IS NOT A GAY DISEASE

The New York Tim article “Rare Cancer Seen 41 Homosexuals” leads to the g of the term “gay ncer” to scribe Kaposi’s 11, 1981 – Wrer and film producer Larry Kramer hosts a fundraiser his New York Cy apartment, at which Dr. &nbsp;</em>May 11 – In an article tled “New Homosexual Disorr Worri Health Officials, ” the New York Tim first publish the phrase Gay-Related Immune Deficiency, or GRID, ntributg to the wispread misnceptn that AIDS only affects gay men. Misnceptns around the study (and a misreadg of Patient O”) give rise to the myth of Patient Zero, a promiscuo or even malic gay man who sgle-handly and knowgly touched off the AIDS panmic the Uned 23 – The Department of Health and Human Servic announc the disvery of a retrovis they ll HTLV-III, the e of AIDS.

Food and Dg Admistratn licens the first blood tt for HIV, and blood banks beg screeng the untry’s blood 22 – The Normal Heart, an tobgraphil play about the early days of the crisis by Larry Kramer, opens 25 – Rock Hudson, a legendary actor om the Goln Age of Hollywood whose homosexualy was an open secret the dtry, announc he has AIDS. The book receiv ltle mastream attentn at publitn, but go down history as a watershed moment gay MORE: How AIDS Activists Used ‘Die-Ins’ to Demand Attentn to the Growg Epimic1987Ann E Zelle/Getty ImagThe AIDS Memorial Quilt featured the nam of 1, 920 people who died of AIDS-related illns when was first displayed 1987—the number eventually grew to over 10, 000. First diagnosed six months before the 1988 gam, Louganis had kept his diagnosis and treatment a secret, even after g out as gay MORE: How Greg Louganis' Olympic Divg Accint Forced a Conversatn About AIDS1996The number of AIDS s diagnosed annually the U.

WHY ARE GAY MEN MORE AT RISK FOR HIV?

Even if we ignore the fact that ernments only publicly acknowledged AIDS years after the first known patients (homosexual men) started dyg, the and other films of the time are evince of the impact a homophobic mastream culture had on the ways AIDS was alt wh public. Dpe the fact that homosexual men had been one of the mographics most affected by the ndn, the mpaigns still refed to addrs homosexuals directly and munite clearly to them ways which homosexual sex uld be ma safer.

HIV IS A STORY FIRST WRTEN ON THE BODI OF GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN

Marked by a fear, on the part of the Thatcher and Reagan ernments, that speakg directly to homosexuals uld be seen as endorsg “viant” homosexual behavur, the often moralistic – and publicly-fund – health mpaigns released durg the peak of the Wtern AIDS crisis ignored the specific reali of those most affected by the epimic. Further, if AIDS beme such a fg spectre hntg gay men durg the 1980s and the early 1990s, we need to thk about the ways which gay masculi and sexual practic are today beg shaped and reprented the age of antiretroviral therapi.

Men who have sex wh men were, and still are, disproportnately impacted by HIV bee transms much more easily through anal sex than through vagal first official ernment report on AIDS me on June 5, 1981, the Morbidy and Mortaly Weekly Report, a ernment bullet on perplexg disease s: “In the perd October 1980-May 1981, 5 young men, all active homosexuals, were treated for bpsy-nfirmed Pnmocystis rii pnmonia at 3 different hospals Los Angel, California. ”In a 1983 appearance on NBC's "Today" show, activist and Gay Mens Health Crisis -founr Larry Kramer asked host Jane Pley, "Jane, n you image what mt be like if you had lost 20 of your iends the last 18 months? She lled the group "Save Our Children" and said reprented the rights of the majory of fileOn March 22, 1980, a year before that first MMWR report, evangelil Christian lears livered a petn to Print Jimmy Carter mandg a halt to the advance of gay rights.

DISCRIMATN AND HOMOPHOBIA FUEL THE HIV EPIMIC GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN

“God’s judgment is gog to fall on Ameri as on other societi that allowed homosexualy to bee a protected way of life, ” Bob Jon III predicted, acrdg to the anti-gay reactn gaed steam across Ameri wh the electn of Moral Majory ally Ronald Reagan, activists found their mands for attentn for a growg medil crisis were ignored. One such group was the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, found New York Cy 1982, which is today the olst HIV/AIDS service anizatn the Men's Health Crisis Smh / NY Daily News via Getty Imag fileBut 1987, activists were still trated by ernment actn as bodi ntued to pile up, and they found the AIDS Coaln To Unleash Power, or ACT UP, New York, their actns and their activist art are legendary for speedg the ernment’s rponse to the AIDS crisis, allowg quicker ttg and treatment of lifavg experimental dgs, and drawg public attentn to the adly impact of homophobic public health polici.

Sce early victims were predomantly gay men, the stigma attached to homosexualy the medil, erng, law enforcement and eccliastil stutns beme a barrier to unrstandg, preventn, and out of doctoral study the mid-1980s, I was part of the first generatn of mental health provirs to rpond to the epimic the San Francis Bay Area Northern California. Her Highns Sheikha Mozah exhorted the atten om around the world to not stop at talk but, stead, m themselv to actn agast both the sndalo lack of accs to dimentary tn for over one hundred ln school-age children worldwi, as well as the tolerable equi of genr, class, and enomic stature which impair the attament of basic years ago, the gay muny was effective tg var social and profsnal muni bee, beg highly ted, privileged, and entled, was unaaid to speak the tth and go head-to-head wh powerful sectors that were perceived as obstctg accs to rmatn, rearch, treatment, and fundg. One, the Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr, Queer (LGBTQ) Prints Higher Edutn is newly formed and "advanc effective learship the realm of post-sendary tn, supports profsnal velopment of LGBTQ lears that sector, and provis tn and advocy regardg LGBTQ issu wh the global amy and for the public at large.

Outsi the Uned Stat, sex between men acunts for as much as 25 percent of all HIV fectns parts of Lat Ameri, wh rat nearly as high Asia, and not as high Ai where HIV much more strongly affects Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Associatn (ILGA) 2010 reported that 77 untri ntue to outlaw same-sex relatns, cludg five that impose the ath penalty on cizens for beg gay (Iran, Mrania, Sdi Arabia, Sudan, and Yemen, pl some parts of Nigeria and Somalia).

MYSTERY DISEASE KILLS GAY MEN – ARCHIVE, 1981

Acrdg to Gee Ayala, executive officer for the Global Fom on MSM and HIV (MSMGF), prentatns addrsg the HIV panmic disproportnate affect on gay and bisexual men around the world acunted for a mcule two percent of the entire program at the Eighteenth Internatnal AIDS Conference (lled AIDS 2010) Vienna. In Augt 2010, Dunn Osborne reported Gay Cy News that New York Cy health partment data dite MSM the cy ntue to have a very high rate of new HIV fectn and efforts to get more HIV-posive men onto treatment may be failg.

He remend a stronger 'HIV preventn nscns' and believ regulatn, ially self-regulatn, is need gay sex also suggted that tnal posters about post-exposure prophylaxis, or PEP, would let gay men know that a thirty-day urse of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) has been shown to block HIV fectn if begun wh 72 hours of exposure.

HIV AND ALL GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN

"We need our current gay men's health crisis to be out the open, " he wrote, "warts and all, the way was the heyday of Larry Kramer's activism, however nvenient that might seem given our current high-profile battl for equaly. The -founr of GMHC and father of ACT UP, the man who beme the angry voice of a gentle but ightened people the darkt of the plague years, told me his Washgton Square apartment -- a sacred space gay Amerin history -- on a swelterg day July 2010 that he'd recently had "a lot of teractn wh Dr. She said 's "shockg and outrageo" that Ain-Amerin gay and bisexual men particular are so heavily affected by HIV, and that anizatns the gay muny haven't seemed to re, judgg by the agendas they set and the prri they her way of lookg at thgs is shaped by the fact that a uple of floors below her office, the Center's health clic each month tak re of 2, 500 people wh HIV, and tts another 1, 000 for the vis.