"Around the web... there are several articles... intending to raise awareness this Pride weekend that AIDS remains an issue devastating communities of gay men."- Lorraine Teel, Executive Director, Minnesota AIDS project.
Lorraine Teel writes:
Let’s first assume that you my dear reader, are not a gay man.
Imagine now that some new sexually-transmitted disease took hold in your community – say a community of heterosexuals...
Because like other [communities we] tend to work, socialize and date each other close to home. Pretty soon this new virus would be widespread in your hometown and the odds of you contracting the virus would be pretty high.
For a minute, let’s pretend a bit more – say for example, no one really explained to you in terms you understood, how to protect yourself and how to stay virus free. Odds go up even further.
I know; you may be wagging your virtual finger at me. “Wouldn’t be a problem for me … it’s all about waiting till you get married.”
Here in the real world, right now gay men don’t have that choice to “wait till they get married”. And they rarely, if ever, receive real practical education about HIV in school or at home due to the homophobia that continues to block this important need.
Children who come out as gay to their parents rarely experience “the talk” from parents too shy or too scared, or too ashamed, to get information so they can have “the gay talk” with their sons or daughters.
Furthermore, what can we expect young gay men to know about safer sex if our schools don’t teach them or they have parents too shy to too ashamed to talk? READ MORE
