AIDS is a part of our community, and for many younger members it always has been. They heard about it in health class, and many do not personally know anyone in their age demographic who is positive…yet. In an attempt to combat the homophobic misconceptions that HIV/AIDS is a “gay disease,” public health committees, the LGBTQ community, and many AIDS organizations talk about how AIDS impacts everyone regardless of sexuality. A great deal of attention has been paid to the epidemic rate of infection within the continent of Africa.
This past week in the Journal of the American Medical Association I read that although the rate of infection amongst gay men in the western world has steadily decreased for years, the most recent studies say the rate has been increasing. Between 2001and 2005 there was a 13% increase in the number of men who have sex with men who are currently living with HIV/AIDS.
In a community where the disease has caused devastation, and who valiantly fought against it with wide scale education, how are we now loosing ground? This is an issue which impacts all of us, it is everyone’s responsibility to know their HIV status. Is it possible that in our efforts to fight AIDS and to make it clear that it impacts everyone, not just LGBTQ people, that we have forgotten members of our community that have been and continue to be devastated by this disease? We need to be vocal about this killer, the devastating impact it has on our people, and we need to support those members who are living with HIV/AIDS. AIDS is not and never has been a “gay disease” but it is a queer issue and we need to be paying attention.
And The Band Played On, by Randy Shilts, was reissued for its 20th anniversary on November 27th, 2007 by St. Martin’s Griffin Publishing. Buy this important play-by-play on the start of the AIDS epidemic in the U.S. from amazon.com.
–Sassafras Lowrey
Filed under: news, queer books | Tagged: AIDS, HIV, Randy Shilts, infection rates, and the band played on
