We all know the old adage about mechanics having the worst cars, but the principle seems to apply across many professions. For instance, you’d expect nurses to be more aware than most about the connection between unprotected sex and pregnancy. Yet, several nurses of my younger acquaintance had multiple abortions because they refused to use birth control (no, I wasn’t involved!). Slow learners, it seems.
Speaking of slow learners: anyone with HIV would presumably be at least dimly aware that unprotected sex with a merry-go-round of strangers is what you might call “risky behaviour”.
Brian Thomas is a nurse and TikTok creator based in the United States who makes videos about sexual health and his own HIV-positive status.
So when he developed flu-like symptoms and noticed suspicious bumps on his body in late June, he didn’t hide it from his audience.
The global monkeypox outbreak had only just reached the US — in fact, Brian was told he was among the first people in the state of Maryland to be formally diagnosed.
It seems that, rather than just invest a couple of bucks in a box of frangers, young Brian opted to keep the Clap Clinic on speed dial instead. Way to educate people about sexual health.
“I usually take my followers to the clinic when I get screened [for sexually-transmitted diseases], just to destigmatise going and getting tested,” he said.
Now, you or I might be thinking that it’d be wiser to destigmatise not opening one’s arse to all comers at the weekly Big Gay Barebacking Orgy. But restraint isn’t a favoured concept these days, apparently — unless, by “restraint”, you mean, “getting led about on a lead while wearing a leather pup mask”.
An even less favoured concept is telling the truth.
This global outbreak is unprecedented — and has been made only more complicated by the presence of networks primed to spread disinformation, especially on social media.
You mean, misinformation like this?
Who is at risk
• People who have had close physical contact with an MPX case
• Australian travellers returning from, or going to, countries with confirmed cases(Source: Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care)
Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care
Notice anything conspicuous by its absence, there?
According to the World Health Organization, more than 97 per cent of cases in the latest outbreak have occurred in men who have sex with men […]
Leading infectious disease expert Sharon Lewin said the fact many people are contracting monkeypox during sex, and exhibiting symptoms around their genitals and anus, suggests the virus is being transmitted sexually, not just through intimate physical contact […]
“Monkeypox demands a sophisticated response,” said Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations deputy CEO Heath Paynter.
It’s not that sophisticated, really: just give up the thousands-strong barebacking orgies for a while.
After all, the rest of us were forced to give up everything from visiting dying relatives, to weddings, funerals, playgrounds, even going to the beach, because of a disease orders of magnitude less lethal than monkeypox. Yet, “Pride” events — which in practise mean “non-stop gay sex orgies” — have been carrying on, regardless. With the open blessing of the same authorities who locked us all in our homes during 2020-21.
Oh, but the “stigma”!
“I think the biggest risk at this point … is the victim-blaming language that we saw was incredibly toxic in the ’80s with HIV, and that we have spent decades trying to counter.”
ABC Australia
In fact, as I wrote recently, what we’re really seeing is the ridiculous denialism of the 80s, when we were told that we were all gonna die of AIDS, when in fact just a few very specific demographics were overwhelmingly at risk. The outcome of such denialism is complacency among those at-risk groups. When we told the truth — that gay sex was one of the biggest vectors of transmission — the response was a swift adoption of safe sex practises.
But once we stopped telling that simple truth, complacency set in. When gay men are told that unprotected, rampant promiscuity is no more risky than any other behaviour, why bother taking any precautions? For years, there have been intermittent warnings that complacency in the gay community was contributing to a new spike in risky behaviour.
Well, now we’re learning the hard way. Although, having caught HIV already isn’t apparently enough to get the message through to some.
Why heed the lesson anyway? After all, it’s not his fault — that would be “stigmatising”.