The difference in HIV infection between gay men and lesbian women has little if anything to do with male promiscuity or with “riskier” male sex drives. Mostly it has to do with the physics of unprotected gay male sex, particularly anal sex, which has a much higher chance of leading to an exchange of blood, and therefore a much higher chance of transmitting HIV. With apologies for the vulgarity, lesbians are less likely to engage in unprotected penetrative sex involving a body part doing the penetrating, for physical reasons that have nothing to do with a desire to take risks, and this means that they are less likely to exchange the fluids mostly likely to spread HIV.

Sadly, women are less safe during straight sex, as the receptive partner in a penetrative sex act, any such act, is far more likely to contract AIDS from their partner than a penetrative partner is if the receptive individual has HIV. As a result, women and gay men who act in the receptive role are at a greater risk than their male partners.

That said, male sexual culture did contribute to the problem in both the straight and gay community, though whether this is due to biology or socialization is up for debate. During the time when HIV was poorly understood, the stigma against homosexuality and the difficulty in hiding a committed relationship led to many gay men having anonymous sex with a large number of partners. Straight men also spread the disease unknowingly, through sex with prostitutes as well as other vectors of unprotected sexuality, either before or during their supposed periods of monogamy. The pressure in our culture on men to have sex, and at as young an age and with as many women as possible, combined with the frequent reluctance to educate youth about safe sex practices, doesn’t help in the preventions of STIs.

Earl, throughout most of human history, marriage has not been between one man and one woman. It began as marriage in common between all men and women of an extended family or tribe, including blood relatives. Later on incest between brothers and sisters was discouraged. Polygamous and polyandrous(one woman, several husbands) marriage developed, with the restriction of the female coming after the development of agriculture and the development of social class. After that, for thousand of years even to this day, marriage has often been polygamous, either officially, or unofficially.

So what we see is that your conservative ideas about “traditional marriage” aren’t traditional at all, and it was not the normal form of marriage for most of human history(some would argue it never was). How do we know this? Well, you’d probably call it “propaganda”, but it goes by the more technical term “historical evidence.” Your side doesn’t seem to have any.

If AIDS is a homosexual problem, why is it spreading fastest in the USA among straight women? If it’s a “gay” problem, why are hundreds of thousands of children around the world infected with the virus? Do you have no empathy for them at all? How about for the women discussed by skinnyminny? To deny the reality of these cases is a fairly serious lapse of judgement.

If less people had thought like you did in the early days of HIV, that AIDS was a gay problem and likely one we deserved, who knows how much tragedy could have been prevented? For the record, HIV is spread by a virus, it doesn’t care what gender the partners in question are. Anal sex, whether done by two men or a man and a woman, has the higest sexual rate of transmission, but of course sex is only one vector through which the disease spreads, if the most important one.

The lowest risk, when it comes to sex, is between two women, which makes AIDS far more a straight problem than a lesbian one, though anyone with a hint of decency should be concerned about such a devestating illness. Somehow I doubt you’ll be a fan of those facts though, as they tend to contradict your rhetoric.

As for same sex marriage, I suggest you marry whoever you think is appropriate for you, and stay out of other people’s business unless you have a good reason not to. Offer a single reason why same-sex marriage shouldn’t be allowed, and it’ll be worth discussing it with you.

Aron Levy and the other heterosexual commentors here who reject the “logic” offered by EarlCAnthony and by the AFA, thank you. The gains made in the past decades by the LGBT community would not have been possible without the allies and supporters such as you, nor would our lives be nearly as rich.

Yes, homosexuals do spread disease. So do heterosexuals. So do asexuals. No one is immune.

And your ideas of marriage are callous and archaic.

As I said before, everyone deserves the right to be happy. You just don’t seem to understand that.

Aron

While I am not gay myself, I have nothing but love and respect for that community, and am proud to call myself a Massachusetts native. The day gay marriage was approved was one of the happiest days of my life.

We were meant to be happy. And that is all that matters.

Regards,

Aron

It should also be noted that some people contracted this from blood transfusions, organ transplants…as well as hepatitis. ***I think a big case was the prisoner blood tainted case, when Clinton was prez, and it spread to people in other countries, i.e. Canada

It’s simple as to why they do that…they have large collections of “lesbian” porn.

These people have blood on their hands, but the callousness with which they attempt to blame Gay Straight Alliances, Pride Parades, and just being LGBT for deaths inspired by their hatred shows that they are beyond human empathy in many cases.

It is difficult to adequately describe in words the damage that the closet and that heterosexism can cause to a child or young adult’s self image. The fear of exposure, the pressure to live a lie, and the constant mental debate of measuring the effect of coming out, which is so often mistakenly viewed as a one-time event, all take a very real psychological toll even in the most supportive environments. Add to that the homophobia in our society, where kids grow up hearing anti-gay language daily in schools and in an environment where the word gay is synonymous with stupid and undesirable, and it’s amazing the horrible rates of drug abuse and suicide aren’t higher.

It doesn’t help matters that so many schools prevent even a basic discussion of sexual orientation as being age inappropriate, while allowing homophobia to continue without a comment. For many youth, the only discourse around homosexuality is the taunts and bullying of their fellow students, and it is this as much as anything else which let the truly hateful voices cause so much harm. That’s why groups like the SPLC are important, and why the LGBT community marches in cities across the world each year. The voices of hatred are being challenged, and they’re losing.

Concerned Citizen, your prediction in this case is likely to be accurate, and I’ll be shocked if it takes a full twenty.

The American Psychiatric Association stopped listing homosexuality as a mental disorder in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual in 1973. While some anti-gay activists still claim this was the result of an alleged internal “coup” staged by gay activists and not sound science, numerous other reputable professional organizations and researchers have affirmed that finding since then. Kinsolving, Glenn and Harvey surely can’t credibly claim to have been misled by having consulted a copy of the DSM that’s almost four decades out of date.

Robert Steinback
Deputy Editor, Hatewatch blog
Southern Poverty Law Center

Thankfully this is no longer the case, but that’s probably where he got that ridiculous notion.

Now he kindly needs to shut his foolish mouth.

Aron