January 30, 2005

• Is it time for positive status to be...rebranded? Dislike the idea of people being 'outed' for HIV/AIDs. However, if individuals wish to release the information, that's another matter. Don't know if the time is ripe yet -- doubt most folk feel free enough to do so, though.
• It wasn't anyone's business but his, until he revealed it. He was open about his orientation and has continued to serve for at least 7 years while seemingly remaining healthy enough to take care of his duties. Doesn't seem problematical. I don't think our politicians are as brave in the US, maybe because we have a larger population segment which is intolerent or ignorant or both. Maybe we just have a lot more inertia going on here.
• i say bravo! there's something incredibly sad about people feeling that they have to hide who and what they are--leads to all sorts of other problems, in my experience. i just went over to cnn to see if they're carrying the story (they aren't) to see how the u.s. press will treat it. i can't really imagine it happening here, although there are a few openly gay legislators www.massequality.org/hot_bw_9_16.php in the u.s.
• Strangly enough, the first openly gay politician I knew of was the head of the Department of Motor Vehicles during the Reagan governorship in Calif, way back when. The press tried to make a big deal out of it, but it didn't work.
• I can't remember what it was that got Chris Smith sacked from the cabinet in 2001. Anyway, brave man - hope his health holds out for a long and happy retirement when he steps down at the next election.
• In many ways I fail to see what the fuss is. After all, prior to penecilla, syphillis was as bad as AIDS, and more than a few notable figures of history contracted it.
• I don't think our politicians are as brave in the US .... HARHARHARHARHARHARHAR How can you say that? Why, they're a buncha boy scouts up there!
• I don't think our politicians are as brave in the US, maybe because we have a larger population segment which is intolerent or ignorant or both. Where do you live? Mordor?
• Sorry if I'm a bit dim, but what in the hell do you mean? Would any of our cabinet level appointees or agency heads come out as gay? Or admit that they were HIV positive? This guy did both, and certainly managed to stay in government after coming out as gay. I think that would be political suicide here. So, please explain to me in exquisite detail how stupid I am.
• Poking around the net all I can find is that Smith was sacked to make way for Teresa Howell. Turns out he was also the first MP to have climbed all the Munros. Must be a joke about peak of his career in there somewhere.
• My comment was focused on the shortcomings of the U.S., not your comment, path. (And I believe BlueHorse's was, too)
• Actually, I completely misread your comment originally. Huge apology.
• (I thought I read "I don't think our politicians are as brave AS in the U.S.")
• Is it time for positive status to be, forgive me, rebranded? What do you mean by rebranded, exactly? Until this stops, I'm perfectly happy to call HIV+ status what it is and question the sanity of people who engage in suicidal behavior.
• I assumed he meant that Smith's announcement might serve to encourage society at large to see HIV+ as less "shameful"; cf Mandela's recent comments about his son (referred to in the article). I can't imagine Danger was suggesting HIV should be "rebranded" as something cool to have.
• Exactly, tqk, exactly. I meant that given the extent and range of infection, perhaps it's time that HIV will be seen in the same light as, say, cancer, rather than as something that others get. No one sees cancer, even lifestyle-induced cancers, as shameful - but quite a few see HIV as such. You can be chronically ill from, say, obesity, which requires a prolonged dedication to the art of eating too much, (or from smoking, or from drug abuse, or from alcohol, all of which require the same consistent effort to die from), and society at large won't consider it shameful. But make perhaps one mistake and catch HIV, and in many parts of the world you will be shunned. This can't help.
• We await the day that people who are frightened are going to stop being frightened long to think rationally and behave in socially beneficial ways. /picks up blame for panic-reactions, lays it directly at feet of US politicians (Gingrich, Helms, Reagan), so-valled Christian spolespeople (Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and media presentation of brouhaha surrounding death of Rock Hudson, Ryan White's unforgettable and surprisingly mature behaviour in face of repeated ostracism etc
• Whoa. I'm applauding something Chris Smith has done. This feels weird.
• Alex: nothing new. There were priods where people drew attention to syphillis sores as proof of thier virility.
• i appreciate the link, alex reynolds. i'd not heard of 'barebacking' before, but every segment of society has its nuts. do you really think, though, that all hiv+ people should be judged by the actions of what i'd like to believe is a minority? especially since gay white males aren't necessarily the ones who are contracting aids, these days:

  African-American women are 23 times as likely to be infected with the Aids virus as white women and account for 71.8% of new HIV cases among women in 29 US states, government research shows. The Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit health organisation, has found that in 2001 roughly 67% of black women with Aids had contracted the virus through heterosexual sex - up from 58% four years earlier. www.allaboutblackhealth.com/black_women_in_us_23_times_as_li.htm
• msconduct, in this case, I don't believe the honorable Chris Smith contracted HIV through dirty needles or having unprotected hetero sex. There are many infected people who contracted the disease through no fault of their own (female partners of infected African-American men on the "down-low", which you cite as an example), but Smith is not one of them. I'm sorry, but I just don't think it serves unwitting, innocent AIDS victims much good to give multiple-partnered poz-barebackers much sympathy. It certainly doesn't do much good for the heterodominative image of GLBT peoples. I plan to heap shame on these people before their image gets spun into something that encourages others to write their own death sentences.
• Wow. That is so profoundly sad. Any human being messed up enough to actively seek that disease has my sympathy.
• Alex Reynolds: You don't know how Smith got infected, neither does Smith. Most likely it was through sex with another man, but this is no reason not to empathise with the man. Certainly there is no evidence that he was trying to get infected; the amount of time since his infection suggests a fairly good chance that it occurred before AIDS was even very much in the public eye. There is little evidence that bugchasing is practiced by any more than a tiny majority of gay men. Your lack of human sympathy for the vast majority of HIV and AIDS infected people on the grounds that some very few people might seek out infection is frankly revolting.
• Biffa, I think Alex Reynolds isn't saying what you think he's saying. He admits that he doesn't know, and he doesn't believe that Chris Smith got HIV by barebacking. Moreoever, it is precisely because he has sympathy for the "vast majority of HIV and AIDS infected people", that he is so indignant about barebackers getting publicity: I'm sorry, but I just don't think it serves unwitting, innocent AIDS victims much good to give multiple-partnered poz-barebackers much sympathy. If such people gain more publicity, it can only do the rest of the AIDS infected population an injustice. Please read his comments again.
• Alex Reynolds- If I could find the Believer article, I'd grab it, but there was a story written in the NY Times that started this "bug chasing" meme, and the Believer went through point by point and debunked it. The original author didn't bother to source anything, went only on third-hand accounts, and pretty much lied in order to make the story seem more interesting. I know Dan Savage went off on it too. But for the most part, bug chasing is a myth. The idea that it is prevalent is something not borne out by any reputable study.
• Alnedra: He's saying 'There are many infected people who contracted the disease through no fault of their own ...but Smith is not one of them.' That doesn't exactly brim over with human sympathy. The reference to the largely unsupported phenomenon of bugchasing was pretty much irrelevant to the issue of Smith revealing his HIV status.