20% of Gay Men Are HIV-Positive

Posted by majestic on September 27, 2010

Wow – that’s really high. Worse, half of them don’t know it, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in this report from TIME:

Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that 1 in 5 sexually active gay and bisexual men in America are HIV-positive but that 44% of them don’t know it.

More than 8,000 self-identifying gay and bisexual men (or, as the researchers call them, MSM, for men who have sex with men) were tested by CDC workers in the 21 American cities with the highest infection rates. The gay population in Baltimore had the highest rates of HIV infection, at 38%, while Atlanta scored lowest, at 6%.

The highest absolute number of infections occurred in white MSM, primarily those between the ages of 30 to 39. However, young black gay and bisexual men (aged 13 to 29) had the highest rates of HIV infection per capita, and young Hispanic MSM also had disproportionately high rates of infection. (More on Time.com: Why Are Black Bikers More Likely to Die in Crashes than Whites?)

HIV is a growing problem in other groups as well. The CDC study also found that the HIV infection rate in heterosexual black women is higher than in their white or Hispanic counterparts, and even higher than rates in Hispanic gay men. According to another CDC study, HIV infection was the leading cause of death for black women aged 25 to 34. Fully 81% of American women living with HIV are women of color.

Overall, the CDC estimates that more than 1 million people are living with HIV in the U.S., and that 21% are unaware of their infection. More than 18,000 people with AIDS still die each year. Although the total number of people living with HIV in the U.S. has increased in recent years, according to the CDC, but the annual number of new HIV infections has remained relatively stable — an estimated 56,300 Americans become infected each year.

There is no denying that the highest infection rates occur in gay and bisexual men. Although they account for 4% of the male population in the United States, their HIV-infection rate is 44 times the rate of heterosexual men…

Posted in: AIDS, Disease, Health, HIV, Video

Vox Penii

MSM (”men who have sex with men” is used in epidemiology rather than homosexual/bisexual) are notoriously sexually promiscuous when compared to heterosexuals, and about 60% of MSMs regularly have anal intercourse.

despite gay activist propaganda and the influence of p0rn helping to normalize anal intercourse, the practice is nonetheless “abnormal” in that it’s more likely than vaginal intercourse to be strongly associated with a variety of health problems and negative consequences … intestinal parasites > http://www.springerlink.com/content/jx13231641717w48/ http://www.hopkins-hivguide.org/literature_review/02-2004/new_look_at_gay_bowel_syndrome.html http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1984.tb37121.x/abstract <

for the record: I don't care who people have sex with, in a moral/ethical/religious sense. but I think it's intellectually dishonest to ignore empirical data. as (lesbian) art/social critic Camille Paglia wrote, "Homosexuality is not “normal.” On the contrary, it is a challenge to the norm . . . . Nature exists, whether academics like it or not. And in nature, procreation is the single, relentless rule. That is the norm. Our sexual bodies were designed for reproduction. [...] Gay activists are guilty of Stalinist disinformation when they assert that homosexuality is no different than and equivalent to heterosexuality, and that anus and vagina are interchangeable, except for our political conditioning to the contrary. Toleration of dissenting behavior, which I am calling for, does not necessarily mean approval by society. Pagan and Judeo-Christian will never, and should never, agree. Disapproval is not “ignorance” or “bigotry,” gay activists tiresome crutch terms, when it is motivated by principle. Similarly, there are legitimate medical questions about the safety and sanitation of tissue-rupturing anal sex, even though the latter belongs, in my view, to the private realm outside government control." Vamps and Tramps, 1994
Vox Unpopuli

“MSM (”men who have sex with men” is used in epidemiology rather than homosexual/bisexual) are notoriously sexually promiscuous when compared to heterosexuals, and about 60% of MSMs regularly have anal intercourse”.

Lovely generalization (as a self identifying gay man) who’s only had 3 sexual partners in the last 15 years, only one sexual partner in the last 5 and hasn’t engaged in anal sex in well over 12 years.
What percentage of the heterosexual population engage in anal intercourse and is it view as equally ‘abnormal’ or an aberration under those circumstances ?
Just because we are homosexual it does not mean we all identify with some perceived universal “gay lifestyle” or form of existence.
Perhaps I mix in different circles (shrugs shoulders), as none of the people I know would fit that description.
Just for the record “Men who have sex with Men” often genuinely identify themselves as heterosexual and from my experience are large portion of them seem to be married, living double lives also.
Not my bag either.
That said the statistic does not surprise me in the slightest, considering a large number of such men did not come out in the bad old days of the late 80’s to mid 90’s before adequate HAART Therapy was available.
If you remember those bad old days (and I do all to well), the amount of grief and death one had to deal with was positively overwhelming at times.
http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

And now its time for the one, the only, the original Vox….

Lousy effin title. Just lousy and sensationalistic. Even a cursory perusal of the article makes it clear that the populations involved are limited to a small number of major metropolitan areas, which skews the results far far out of whack.

And like Vox Populi…I’ve been shacked up with the same guy for going on 6 years. Monogamy is not uncommon among homosexuals…except in carefully fudged sensationalistic news. We’re actually very nearly as boring and disease-free as everyone else…although our interior decorating skills do make for attractive home environments…and our clothing choices tend to be a little more on the tasteful side when the cameras aren’t focused on the Frisco Leather scene.

Point being, any study with bad news for urban, sexually active people should at least be prefaced with a title that keeps the dignity and importance of the study alive…instead of killing it mere seconds after the article is read.
http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

Camille Paglia looks piss ignorant next to anyone who grew up in farm country and watched animals of every variety pair off with a same sex partner. Not often…but often enough to indicate that nature too includes a relief valve for a small percentage of creatures that don’t pursue breding relentlessly. Her lectures and writings may have made for punchy sensationalistic psuedobabble devoured by fans and university presses, but beyond the ivory tower they crash to ground faster than the Hindenberg.

PS: vaginal intercourse…especially vigorous frequent vaginal sex…increases risks of cervical cancer…better lay off that shit while you still can. I suppose we’d all be safe if we just wank off or develop an Orgasmatron compliments of Woody Allen so that no more pesky human contact spoils sexuality.
http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

Good on ya, man! Peace!!
5by5

Vox Penii: “Nature exists, whether academics like it or not. And in nature, procreation is the single, relentless rule. That is the norm.”

No, the “norm is that homosexuality exists throughout some 300 species in nature, and while making up a smaller percentage within a population, that population ratio is still the “norm”. A simplistic definition such as yours also denies the survival value that homosexuality serves in nature. In ducks for instance, male homosexual ducks mate for life, but one will partner with a female duck. She will get the protection of not one, but TWO males during her pregnancy, and then once the ducklings are born, the fathers actually raise the chicks. Even among humans, in Native American communities, gays were considered “two-spirit” people who helped care for children when straight parents were busy with other tasks for the tribe.

This statement was disturbing as well:

“Disapproval is not ‘ignorance’ or ‘bigotry’, gay activists tiresome crutch terms, when it is motivated by principle.”

What possible “principle” could homophobia be based upon save both ignorance and bigotry, born out of religious texts that date back prior to the Age of Reason and the scientific method? Anyone who is against homosexuality is doing so based solely upon those beliefs, which have no foundation in any logical morality worth a damn.
5by5

What this study is really saying is two-fold:

1.) The pernicious effects of Bush’s Abstinence/Ignorance program is having a deadly effect in the gay community among younger gays who have no sense of the train-wreck that was the 80’s. Rather than being educated how to have safe sex, all they got was blatant, politically-motivated misinformation like “condoms don’t stop AIDS”, or worse, no mention of how to protect themselves at all, when they should have been handing out not just condoms but contraceptives like they were tic-taks.

2.) The advent of the AIDS cocktail has made some in the gay community get lazy about prevention, and the homophobia born in black churches who demand gay men be on the “down-low” has meant that black gay men in particular are more likely to take stupid chances when they finally do give in to what nature demands of them. Just ask Bishop Long. Two things are deadlier than the disease, overconfidence and a sense of irrational invincibility, and irrational fear & ignorance.

I also find it interesting that the media is always ready to talk about AIDS in the gay community, but irresponsibly fail to report that the group in which AIDS is spreading the fastest is actually among seniors. They’ve got the viagra, but they aren’t using the condoms.

The larger truth is that sex education in this country is a fracking joke. To quote Dan Savage, “Absintence educaion is pathetic, but even the ‘good’ sex education called for by most sexually liberated is still pretty poor”, pointing out that teaching about “how the va-jay-jay or the penis works”, or “how an egg divides” is a bit like teaching somebody about the combustion engine, and then giving them a license to drive. Even if you know a piston and a clutch works doesn’t teach you how to signal other drivers of your intentions, how to find professional maintenance, or what the general rules of the road are. Neither does today’s better sex education tell people how to ask for sex, how to respect a partner’s boundaries, how to ask about birth control, diseases, or how to properly use protection, much less what to do in the actual act to please your partner and have a good time yourself.

And that uptight bullshit has been cost us our kid’s LIVES for decades. THAT is pathetic.
A Bad Joke

I owe you a beer my friend.
A Bad Joke

Amazing how polarizing this issue is. My only thought to add is maybe Men, who ingest more beer/booze, will have sex while under the influence- whereby the only thought it “i cant get him pregnant, so whatever.”

This brings up a horrific morning after, which I can attest to having woken up next to strange women on a few occasions.

Or maybe I’m just looking at it from the wrong angle, or whatever, but hell, at least I’m looking at it.
You_hoo

or, alternately, men could stop taking it up the ass.

20% of Gay Men Are HIV-Positive

more disinformation

more disinformation