Wont you help to sing these songs of freedom? Cause all I ever have: Redemption Songs

A quick little thing today. I just kind of need to get it out. It is not a rant full out, but it is something that bothered me a few months ago. At school we were discussing hypothetical situations regarding professionalism. One situation was you overhear a co-worker or classmate at a party say something to the extent of having a problem treating people with HIV/AIDS because they obviously were involved in sinful and deviant behavior to have gotten the disease. Then you were supposed to explain what you would do.

Now the situation didn't bother me. It was hypothetical. I am not that hung up on things. And mind you, I hate political correctness so it takes a lot to rile me up. But this did it. And I think it was because of how innocently and confidently they stated their opinion as fact. An opinion that is not fact at all and is quite ... quite faulty.

So most people responded the way you would imagine people in a group are responding. Most people said they would try to talk them in private about the situation. Others said they wouldn't say anything because it was said at a non-professional local and it wasn't their place. Personally, I don't know what I would actually do. I would probably say something to them, but not in a productive way and not do any good. Or I would silently fume and say nothing and chastise myself later.

One person, however, said "I wouldn't say anything because that is how you get AIDS/HIV. You don't get it unless your being deviant and doing things that are immoral so I agree with this student." This wasn't a devil's advocate moment. This was honest and felt. Another person chimed in that they would have trouble saying anything to the person because that is a statement they would tell their children because it is a way to get HIV/AIDS.

Now, some people do get HIV/AIDS from what would be described as deviant or sinful behavior. I hate the term "sinful behavior" because to me it implies using some sort of moral standard that has been put in place by someone that may not reflect what is actually normal in society. Pre-marital sex may be viewed by some people as sinful, but in America it is in no way deviant. That being said ... intravenous drug users sharing needles are at risk of HIV/AIDS by sharing needles. That would be deemed deviant behavior. So on that hand I can at least see someone's logic behind telling their children that sinful/deviant behavior leads to HIV/AIDS. You are trying to keep your kids from doing A. A has a chance to lead to B even though that is not the real or main reason you want them not to do A. B is scarier than anything else you can tell them. Therefore you say A leads to B without any other info. I don't agree with doing that, but I can see the logic. So I excuse that person.

However, I do not see the logic behind our first friend. Let us assume they are very religious. (I do not know if this person is in fact very religious or not, it is a moot point to me anyway) If they view any premarital sex as sinful behavior, and we will define sex in this scenario as any sort of action that is meant solely for arousal or sexual gratification or leads to sexual gratification, then they are going to have a lot of problems dealing with patients in America that they deem sinful or deviant. That was the main complaint in the situation that this individual agreed upon. It would be hard to treat AIDS patients because of their deviant/sinful behaviors.

So if they are saying premarital sexual relationships are the main cause of HIV/AIDS and they have a problem with that and don't want to treat them because of the sinful/deviantness, then the population they will want to help if very small in America. Better be a doctor that only deals with ten and under children. So let us assume that premarital sex is not their beef. What else could it be?

HIV/AIDS is most commonly spread by sexual contact. So we will stick on that thought. They could assume you have to be promiscuous or sleep around to get HIV/AIDS. Which is more "sinful" than just premarital relations and slightly more deviant (but not ridiculously deviant in America either). That is still making a high assumption that all these people are getting AIDS because they sleep with anyone at anytime. While that can be the case in a decent % of patients it would be very dangerous to hold that view to all patients with HIV/AIDS.

The largest (or one of, since I won't go check sources but it was true a few years ago) growing population in the world being infected with HIV/AIDS is married women. Largest growing population is more than likely based on percentage of new cases and not number. And yes, we just jumped from America to the world, but I can assure you the correlation is strong. So what happens in many third-world countries with large HIV/AIDS prevalence is that the men must leave their homes to find work. They work away from the house in different cities or in working communities for months at a time. Temptations arise. They sleep with a prostitute or some other female. Contract AIDS, go home when work is done, have normal marital relations with their wife, and the wife now was AIDS. Sadly this is happening all over the world.

So to say that you cannot treat HIV/AIDS patients because of the sinful or deviant behavior is an absolute joke if you are looking at how people actually get HIV/AIDS. If one of these women who got HIV/AIDS from their husbands heard you say that it would be a double slap in the face. They did nothing wrong. Yet you insult them completely by inferring they must have done something immoral or deviant.

Which leads me to other ways you can get AIDS. Well .. there are blood transfusions which you have basically no chance of that happening since they figure that out in the 80s. Some sort of mixing of blood in an accident or what have you ... nothing deviant or immoral there. Oh and there is homosexual sex between two men. That old thing.

See that is the stigma from this disease that you would hope had died out long ago. Since the first cases reported by the CDC were in homosexual men in 1981 the disease, while we were trying to figure out what the hell it was, was called "GRID" in the news. GRID = Gay-related immune disease. The CDC called it 4-H disease because of who it was seeming to target: Homosexuals, Heroin users, Haitians, and Hemophiliacs. In less than a year they realized that the homosexual link was merely the first place they noticed the disease and had nothing to do with homosexuality and GRID became AIDS.

Look at the 4-H's. Heroin users = IV drug users = still at risk for HIV/AIDS if they share their needles. Hopefully they get information about the risk of sharing needles and if they cannot stop using heroin, they can get free needles at clinics and not get a disease. Hemophiliacs = at risk for losing blood easily = more need for transfusion = high risk for HIV/AIDS when no one knew it was a disease and never checked blood for the disease (which has been traced back in humans to about 100 years ago). I would imagine this population is no longer disproportionately at risk. Haitians ... my guess it is like homosexuals and were just the first population in which the disease was noticed.

So my next thought is this. The old stigma stuck with this person and they assume it is a homosexual disease. They think homosexuality is sinful and deviant and therefore refuse to treat HIV/AIDS patients. That pissed me off a lot. 1) Because it is hateful 2) it is untrue and 3) seriously? I have convinced myself that this was not the thought process because I still have some faith that people are better than that, but I am not so sure. However, it is possible this was the objection. This scares me because it is possible and because it means this myth about HIV/AIDS is out there.

If that myth continues to proliferate and HIV/AIDS is seen as a gay disease two things happen. One, the homosexual community is ostracized even more by people who believe this myth. Two, it becomes logical that if it is a gay disease you cannot get it if you are straight. Therefore why worry about it? Why protect yourself? Some of the populations in America with the highest incidence of HIV/AIDS are also the populations that are historically (and statistically) more homophobic/less accepting of homosexuals. Coincidence? Maybe, but a possible causation at some level.

Myths of HIV/AIDS are one of the main reasons it spreads. People do not know how to protect themselves. The wives getting it from their husbands have no reason to think they are at risk. But other women getting HIV/AIDS from a boyfriend are unable socially to force them to use a condom or to feel like they can deny sex and remain in that relationship. Often a relationship they need to be supported in society (That is based on stories I witnessed and heard first-hand in South Africa and Brasil). Other times the myths to cure the disease cause way more harm. Many South Africans believe that having sex with a virgin will cure you from HIV/AIDS. I believe that myth is not just in South Africa actually; but, this leads to very young girls being raped, or in many cases having turned to prostitution after losing their parents to AIDS, by men with HIV/AIDS. Obviously no one is cured but a young girl has now been violated and she has probably acquired the disease.

So why did this make me so angry? The flawed logic got me at first. The possibility of keeping an outdated myth that would be mixed with hate kept it going. Then just the thought of how these myths not only ostracize members of society, but hurt those who believe in them the most just made me angry.

I know I am getting too worked up about this but it is in our power to make HIV/AIDS history. The biggest reason people contract this disease in the world is not because of sinful or deviant behavior. Even if you are being so sinful and deviant that you are injecting 30 needles into your veins while actively participating in an orgy with 40 strangers of varying ethnicities and sexual orientations ... knowing the facts about your risks and how to limit them can keep you healthy. Though I do not recommend that scenario.

FDR once said "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." He did not make that up but we credit him. Oh well. Well .. in truth the only thing we have to fear is misinformation. If you arm people with facts and not myths and take the stigma away the disease and the protections we can greatly reduce the number of transmission per year in a heartbeat. However, we live in a world where a country that has been disproportionally ravished by this disease officially, from the government's highest ranking health official, claimed it did not actually exist and was invented by the USA and UK to keep power over their people. The country was South Africa and it was in the last few months that someone new took over that post and officially reversed policy. So we obviously have some work to do.

Besides convincing people the disease exists ... which is amazing we have to do that at this point ... there are some things to do. A stigma must be removed from being tested for HIV/AIDS. Just the whisper someone has been tested can create such rumors that people fear being tested and avoid testing. Guess what ... the disease will spread more when you don't know you have it. If you do have it, the drugs they gives you can make you live a pretty good life, especially if they catch it early enough and it remains HIV. See: Magic Johnson.

So get tested, tell friends to get tested, even if you are not at risk. This needs to become like a yearly check up thing. Something no one thinks twice about doing. Next is we need to get rid of the idea that condoms are evil. Many religions have this view. Many men just have this view because it "doesn't feel right". Know what else doesn't feel right? Lacking an immune system.

I am a proponent of full sexual education for everyone. The younger the better. And the way kids are hitting puberty earlier and earlier ... I don't know when it should start. Even if you think premarital sex and condoms are morally reprehensible, what is the harm in knowledge? A kid is going to make the decision to have sex or not have sex regardless if they have information about contraception. At least if they have knowledge of contraception they have a chance of not compounding their "mistake" (if you think it is a mistake or immoral). Knowledge is not the enemy. I don't know why that is becoming the case. That is for another day though. Knowledge helps prevent mistakes, it doesn't thrust you into them.

So testing needs to become destigmatized and more prevalent. Condoms need to be more available, less stigmatized, and their needs to be knowledge of why and how a condom is to be used properly in order to prevent disease transfer or unwanted pregnancy (though that is a side issue just like all other STDs in this rambling soapbox speech). Thirdly, the facts of the disease need to be better understood by the entire public. Who can get AIDS? Is there a specific type of person?

The answer is no. The virus treats everyone equally. In some sort of twisted irony, the virus behaves more civilly than we do. It will probably never happen when everyone is treated equal in this country, let alone the world. I digress. HIV does not care your age, your SES, your sexual orientation, or anything else. It cares about one thing ... replicating and taking over a host.

The best defense is a good offense (or did I Missy Elliot that?). Our best offense is knowledge. Teach everyone the realities of the disease and dispel the myths and you will see incidence drop significantly. More knowledge of the disease will lead to people being smarter about using condoms and getting tested (or mutually going to get tested when in a committed relationship), but we would have to work on that as well. It won't just happen.

So instead of being upset about this whole situation I am now more than happy it happened. Something positive has come out of it. All it takes is one person read this and get something out of it or to pass it along. Knowledge is contagious. Inform yourself to protect yourself. The world isn't a scary place if you know what is going on. It is terrifying if you are ignorant.