Quote:
Originally Posted by UtahDan
And here I thought that AIDS was related to unprotected sex and needle sharing. Turns out it is homophobia that is to blame!
I agree that no one deserves AIDS and we should try to find a cure, but my sense is that the ongoing research there is well financed. I also don't think that anyone deserves cirrhosis of the liver and yet I wouldn't put an alcoholic at the top of the transplant list.
I guess if I'm really being honest, I am somewhat indifferent to the plight of most people, not just AIDS victims, who engage in risky behavior and then experience the consequences. Agreed that contracting AIDS is a steep price to pay from an ill advised sexual encounter but so is 18 years is child support. Being suddenly much flatter and wider seems like a disproportionate penalty for packing your parachute incorrectly, but then jumping out of airplanes is a risky thing to do.
I care basically about the children who are born with it through no fault of their own and for that reason am very much in favor of all the efforts to cure it and prevent it. If the secondary beneficiaries of that are adults who contract it because of risky behavior that is fine as well.
In the end I disagree that there is a homophobia issue at play here at this point though I believe there once was. I think it has more to do with the fact that most people contract it through risky behavior (or so it is percieved) and a lot of people are pretty indifferent to that.
|
"Risky behavior" sounds a whole lot like pointing fingers at the homosexual community. That line simply perpetuates the problem. "I am not sympathetic because they did something risky."
That view is one that reflects a very US centric mindset. The AIDS epidemic is, in fact, related to risky behavior, but, sadly, most of those afflicted with AIDS don't have a clue what causes AIDS or how to avoid it. The majority of AIDS casualties won't be in the US, they will be in Africa where over half of all children are born with AIDS in many nations. Should we feel less "sympathetic" towards them? That class overwhelmingly constitutes the group that will die from AIDS, not the class of those who willfully engage in risky behavior understanding the consequences.