There was a moment this week that many thought they would never see. Brig. Gen. Randy S. Taylor rose to address a major conference and introducing his spouse. However in this case his spouse was his husband Lucas who was sitting in the same row with Defense Secretary Ashton Carter Army Secretary John McHugh and other senior officials. Taylor has served 27 years through the ban on gays, the “don’t ask don’t tell policy,” and now the new policy of openness. He and Lucas have had an 18-year relationship.
Taylor discussed the sacrifices that Lucas made for his career and how they both bet everything on the Army. The bet paid off.
This week also saw the adoption of a new policy barring discrimination against members of the U.S. military based on their sexual orientation. Sexual orientation now joins discrimination based on race, gender and other protected categories.
The event itself is notable as the Pentagon’s 4th Gay Pride celebration that featured a gay Marine officer, a gay Army sergeant who is a criminal investigator, a lesbian chaplain and a transgender, Amanda Simpson, who is executive director of the Army’s Office of Energy Initiatives.
Carter set the perfect tone and told the crowd that “We need to be a meritocracy.” Indeed, our military will only stay competitive if we take the best and brightest from our ranks. Many gay and lesbian citizens have answered that call throughout history and they have now achieved true equal status with their peers in service.
Source: Washington Times
And here are the CDC facts about HIV rates here in the US:
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/risk/gender/msm/facts/index.html
Of particular note are these facts:
18% of MSM tested in 2011 were HIV positive. That is higher than most countries of Africa
2% of the population are men who have sex with men (MSM), yet they accounted for 72% of new cases in ages 13-24 years of age.
As previous posters like yourself have noted, it is a false perception of safety to assume that you do not need to take precautions if you are straight, or that you “can’t get it” if you are not MSM. Plenty of other people get HIV, or other STDs, so the message to respect your body and take safety precautions applies to everyone.
What is especially disturbing is that there has been a resurgence in HIV transmission rates, because there is a mistaken, ignorant assumption among young people that HIV is just a nuisance, and not the deadly disease that it is. Some people think there is a cure, or that it can be kept at bay indefinitely. Or they forget about all the other serious infections like Syphilis or HPV. And then there is this shocking “conversion” movement of people deliberately seeking HIV infection just to “fit in” that I just found out about (thank you Squeeky). Seriously, how thoughtless and ignorant do you have to be to basically kill yourself via a long and tortuous death just to fit in?
There is just no excuse whatsoever for HIV or Syphilis to be an issue in the 21st century.
Although people of all sexual orientations should obviously protect their health, as well, there is clearly an out of control epidemic among the gay community that is rising, not decreasing. The war against HIV is a total failure at this point. This is a plague that should have died out long ago, but we need to work together and get serious about eradicating it. And the fact remains that the gay community, and many young people in general, are just not serious about defeating HIV.
I realize this makes me sound old, but this seems to be another symptom of the erosion of personal responsibility in our culture. I don’t care what sexual orientation you are, you owe it to society at large not to act like a thoughtless vector.
Isaac:
You are correct that HIV rates are quite high in Africa among heterosexual males. One of the issues is that, in some cultures, sex with a virgin is a superstitious “cure” for AIDS, so obviously quite a few girls are raped and infected, as well. Every country has its own cultural challenges. According to the National Institute of Health, the HIV rate is 2.5% of 6 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8420583
Here are the rates across all African countries. Note that Swaziland has the highest rate in the world of 26% of the adult population:
http://www.avert.org/africa-hiv-aids-statistics.htm
@Isaac
If you want to merge the HIV problems in this country with those of Africa, that is your business but frankly I do not see a reason why one would want to do so. Africa’s HIV problems come from a different place than ours. Over there, there are a large number of impaired immune systems from bad water, malnutrition, inadequate medical resources to treat non HIV type diseases, etc. Then when you add a lack of anti-viral meds, they tend to have a much higher viral load being pumped into already compromised immune systems. What does that have to do with America??? Our HIV problems come from selfish, lazy gay men who don’t want to use a condom when they sodomize somebody.
The approach that you are taking, to merge the continents, would be like trying to have a discussion about American crumbling infrastructure, and somebody saying that our infrastructure is sooo much better than Ethiopia’s thus merging the two, sooo that overall, Americans don’t have any real infrastructure problems. I mean a person could make that comparison, but I don ‘t see that it sheds any light on the problem.
Maybe you and others really need to read some of the stuff I present, and watch that documentary video. I mean, you have about 600,000 corpses already, and more on the way, and increasing HIV rates to boot. Are you so afraid of being called a homophobe that you can just ignore all that??? There is no law that says you have to give a hoot, but you sure don’t have to jump on me and others for pointing this stuff out.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Paglia skewers conventional/PC wisdom on many topics. I have been a huge fan for almost 20 years now. Squeek is also a fan.
contra Isaac, the celebration of gay marriage in the military is not evidence of societal evolution, but its decline
Camille Paglia:
“
Squeeky
It is not a question of your facts being correct or not. It is a question of using only the facts that fit the argument and disregarding the rest, which may not lean in the desired direction. That’s the problem with the ‘news’. The total, overall, accumulated history of something is rarely offered up at any one time. Instead the only news that seems fit to print is the shocking stuff, the stuff that mixed in a mitigated would not be so shocking.
I am not discounting the ‘wanton’ lifestyle of some gays and that contribution to the spread of HIV in the West but taken in context with the whole problem of HIV it is more the shocking sort of news than the complete story. The most dangerous factor in the spread of HIV has been established as the ignorance and machismo of African heterosexual males in Africa.
Paul
Thinking outside the box is de rigeur (That’s for Nick). However, one doesn’t want to become unravelled.
issac – when one thinks outside the box all options should be available. That doesn’t mean you are going to use them, only that you are going to allow them to be looked at. Often a combination of two or more options can give you the best solution to your problem.
@NickS
Plus, I type up legal stuff for my BFF Fabia Sheen, Esq., an attorney. And I help my mom with her business. And a few friends with theirs. I stay busy, and make enough money where I don’t have to deal with that 8 to 5 grind. Unless Fabia’s other employee is out, and then I will go to her office to help. I have been thinking about going to law school, but I hate to move for the three years or so.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeek, I love watching animals. When I do surveillance I pass the time watching birds, squirrels, cats, etc. When I’m out in the country doing surveillance I see more exotic animals like fox, deer, beavers, muskrats. Possums look a bit satanic when lights hit their faces @ night. I know you keep busy w/ your music as well. “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.”
@isaac
Well, which of the facts that I have presented do you think are incorrect??? That is a fair question, isn’t it??? I usually provide links to my stuff.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
@NickS
It is a beautiful day! I put out bread and bird seed and brown rice several times a day for the all the little birds. Sooo, today I had two baby blackbirds whose mommy was stuffing bread in their mouths. And two cardinals, and two blue jays, and a dozen sparrows, one woodpecker, two mockingbirds, two ring-collar doves, miscellaneous grackles, and about 4 or 5 other doves. My cats sit at the door and watch them. The squirrels were also out, and I put water in the three birdbaths outside. No hummingbirds yet. There is a hawk that has been hanging around, and several neighborhood cats. Last week the sparrows were feeding their chicks. A few weeks ago I had an indigo bunting. The cedar waxwings have already stripped the holly tree. Tonight, two possums will come around and eat up the left over bread. Sometimes I make toast for them, with butter on it. They love to lick the butter off. I even have a raccoon that pops up from time to time. Life is good.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
squeeky
The facts don’t conflict with my opinions. My opinions are designed by the facts. I would revisit your cherry picking of the facts to suit your opinion. Perhaps your poetry would improve.
issac – it is not called ‘poetic license’ for nothing. 😉
The weather was beautiful today in Wi. I took a 12 mile walk around a Madison lake. MUCH more productive than this thread. It would do a few of you some good to get off your fat asses and get some exercise. At least get out of your apartment, house, or basement. Connect w/ real people. Get some sun. It might help your depression.
Science is homophobic.
It must be silenced.
Pogo – I knew that science was atheistic, but I did not know it was homophobic. I am happy to help stamp it out. We have a large farming community around us so pitchforks will not be a problem.
Bam bam:
All tests for blood born pathogens have a sensitivity threshold. So a recent Hep C infection, for example, might also have a false negative. PCR is the most accurate but, again, the level has to be detectable.
If a guy shipping out soon had too good a time at a bar, he might have a false negative on any infections. So perhaps a mid tour follow up screening would be wise. I do not know if it is feasible, though, in the theatre of war.
So far all this military HIV stuff is theoretical. It may be that it never becomes a problem, and if it does, I am betting we never hear about, because it would cast gays in an unfavorable light. It’s about like the female firefighters, who can’t carry as heavy a person as a male firefighter. That is theoretically true, but I am not sure if anybody has ever died because a female couldn’t carry them out of a burning building. There certainly aren’t large numbers of people dying from this. Like I said above, time will tell.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Karen S
As I suspected. Using an excuse–that all soldiers being deployed are screened for blood born pathogens–is not a viable one if, in fact, there is a latency period in which HIV infection, while present in the blood, escapes detection. If the same is untrue for other blood born pathogens, where detection is immediate, this makes HIV infection particularly troublesome and should concern the military. If soldiers are merely viewed as cannon fodder, then, I guess, it doesn’t matter.
@KarenS
Thankfully, most heterosexuals don’t really have to worry much about getting HIV. As long as they stay away from gay men and bisexual men. The bisexual men bother me, because if that segment of the population grows, then they could be introducing the virus into straight women. Sadly, most people have no idea about how many bisexual men are HIV positive. Or gay men either for that matter.
My cousin was in town a few weeks ago. She is in her early 20s, and is am academically smart girl. I have always noticed that she has a lot of lesbian friends, and although she usually has a boyfriend, I suspect she may be bi-curious. Sooo, I just mentioned to her that she needed to be sure to stay away sexually from bisexual or gay men.
She got a little defensive about it, like I was being discriminatory so I asked her what percentage of gay and bisexual men did she think were HIV positive. She said “I don’t know, 1% or 2%.” So I laid the 20% number on, that was 1 in 5 were positive. Her jaw dropped, and she didn’t believe me, so I pulled up the CDC numbers, and she got kind of quiet. Here she is, almost ready to graduate college, and she didn’t know squat about the danger from gay and bisexual men. Just ignorant as hell about this stuff. I lectured her some more about all the funky diseases, the HepC, and gonorrhea of the mouth and eyes and stuff like that, etc. I hope I scared her enough to be a little more cautious.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeeky:
I can’t watch videos at home because I’m on satellite internet, which has Fair Access Policy bandwidth restrictions.
But just the thought of deliberate infection makes me both ill and want to cry.
Why is safe sex such a hard bill of goods to sell when it could help nail the lid on the coffin of this disease, and beat it for good???
That’s actually a major reason why I opposed mandating 26 forms of contraception free of copays. Not only does it drive everyone’s premiums up, including women, but it will inevitably lead to a boom in STDs, for which “the pill” offers no protection.
I hate to see the bright promise of anyone’s life snuffed out over a simple refusal to take basic precautions.
Excuse me, “viral load.” I can’t edit worth a darn.