HIV-1: Scapegoat for religious extremists and biogots

biogots

I love neologisms -- and Abbie scores the first good one this year.

Perhaps they have a hidden agenda. If they kill the gays, god won't obliterate their country with ahmahgawd hellfire and brimstone id est Sodom & Gomorrah style.

Teenage men infected with HIV-1 (15-29 years old)

I didn't realize that my teens lasted that long. [/snark]

This is not too surprising, in that nearly all the things that homophobes attribute to gay men are actually statistically more likely to attributable to straight men - pedophilia, for example, is much more common among heterosexual fathers, uncles, etc... molesting daughters, nieces, etc... and even the majority of pedophiles who abuse male children identify as heterosexual in primary orientation. There are a bunch of other examples out there, but a surprisingly large number of areas that people attack gay men with are actually characteristics of straight men that it is convenient to attribute to gay men.

Sharon

Reading TFA, it appears that the Ugandans are the ones who are deciding to execute homosexuals; and that the three evangelicals who believe that gays can be "cured" had nothing whatever to do with that decision.

Africans are full human beings capable of making their own value judgments. Uganda, and most of the rest of Africa, was a screwed-up place well before these three stooges went over there--take a moment to look up what happens to former "presidents" of Liberia, for example.

Execution of homosexuals in Africa has been going on for a very, very long time.

D.C.-- Since you like it, Ill keep it!

Biogot (noun): Someone who misrepresents science to support their bigotry.

Sci Pundit-- That wasnt a typo. :P

I thought it was rather poetic that those three goons from the US get to finally see that hateful words and belief can translate into action if one is not careful.
I'm using this example for its simplicity and the fact that everyone knows about it and equates it with the black and white concept of evil. I'm not equating the holocaust to Uganda's anti-hate laws.
I don't think Hitler killed any gays, slavs, gypsies, or jews with his own hands, but his words sure gave a lot of people who already wanted to an excuse to do it and an excuse to hand over their neighbours, and it made those feelings OK to act on, and socially acceptable to voice.
Same with the 3 American evangelicals. Africa may already be pretty screwed up, and it may already be homophobic, but a bunch of American preachers go over there without knowing about Ugandan culture and history, and words that may cause some teabagging at home cause genocide in Uganda. The fact that Uganda is messed up doesn't excuse fire-stoking american preachers(who legitimized homophobia and exaggerated the immenence of an imaginary threat) any more than the fact that Prussia for the last couple hundred years was homophobic, xenophobic, and anti-semitic excuses Hitler for his role in the holocaust.
Don't they remember the part in the New Testament where Jesus says that if you hate a man, you kill him? If you commit a sin in your heart you commit it in action? Guess that little bit gets left in the dust. Every once in a while I hope that the Christian God is real and plays by his own rules so that people like this get the smiting they deserve, but I'll just have to settle for a lifetime of what is apparently guilt on the part of one of these pastors.

How do you think allllll these girls/women are being infected with HIV-1?

That's easy. Some gay men must have coughed or sneezed in their presence and the girls breathed in the HIV virus.

"Homosexual men have nothing to do with all those young girls/women being infected with HIV-1."

What a silly assertion.

In the first world we know for a fact that homosexuals are the prime vector for transmission of AIDS.

Sexual practices within african cultures might be relevant here...

While mass-murder might appear to be the wrong way of going about it, maybe a more subtle education campaign against homosexuality would be ineffective in Uganda?

Vince Whirlwind:

What a silly assertion.

In the first world we know for a fact that homosexuals are the prime vector for transmission of AIDS.

What a stupidsilly assertion. It has been established for al;most two decades that heterosexual transmission, especially males and female prostitutes, has been the most common method of transmission in East Africa. The epidemiology is not that hard.

Sexual practices within african cultures might be relevant here...

You're just stretching for something to bash gays with. Homosexuality has had a rather negative historical impact on Uganda: In the 1880's Kabaka [King] Mwanga II of Buganda was known for his cruelty and aggressive homosexual practices against members of his court and others who had converted to Christianity. Many were killed brutally when they refused to submit to rape by the king. He also killed or expelled missionaries and demanded that all of his subjects reject Christianity. From that time, homosexuality has been held in disrepute. This is the historical setting that, along with recent missionaries, for the laws that have been proposed.

While mass-murder might appear to be the wrong way of going about it, maybe a more subtle education campaign against homosexuality would be ineffective in Uganda?

Pick:
1) crackpot
2) bigot
3) both

Holy crap Vince, can't believe you're pro-mass-murder. I'm a pirate and I think it's wrong! natural cynic - nice comment, just missing a slap upside teh face.

Wonderful post ERV - but I think in the US homosexuals were the first to be hit hard by HIV partly because at the time it didn't seem necessary to use condoms for anal - it's not like you're going to get pregnant or anything. An early and strong education and marketing campaign for homosexual condoms use is part of the reason Australia hasn't been as badly effected as other countries.

Increasing condom use in Uganda would likely reduce the rate of infection (both homosexuals AND IMPORTANTLY with prostitutes!) There are plenty of issues marketing condom use though, it's not an easy thing. Especially as HIV passes more easily to the receiver (right?) and the health and well-being of prostitutes is probably not terribly important to their clients.

I dunno...is Vince well-known here? His phrasing seems a little too carefree for a bigoted crackpot...I'm thinking Poe.

#7 scrabcake

"any more than the fact that Prussia for the last couple hundred years was homophobic, xenophobic, and anti-semitic excuses Hitler for his role in the holocaust."

Hey Hey Hey Godwin and ease up on the Prussians there big fella, rumor has it Kaiser Bill was not adverse to skipping around the barracks from time to time.

The Prussians are just an exuberant heavily armed overenthusiastic people easily manipulated by failed Austrian watercolorists....that and an affinity for pointy hats seem to be their only flaws.

Pick on the Belgians instead, nobody likes them and they put mayo on their fries.

What people are ignoring here is that the TalEvangelicals basically wrote the Ugandan Genocide Bill in its entirety. Sure, there was a receptive audience for their "kill the gays" fearmongering in Uganda, but nobody involved gets to avoid the blame - there's plenty to go around.

Re scrabcake @ #7

Actually, up until 1932, the Jews in Germany were the most liberated in Europe and were highly influential in the sciences and intellectual life of that country (Einstein, Born, Meitner, etc.). They were certainly better off then the Jews of France and Great Britain.

What people are ignoring here is that the TalEvangelicals basically wrote the Ugandan Genocide Bill in its entirety. Sure, there was a receptive audience for their "kill the gays" fearmongering in Uganda, but nobody involved gets to avoid the blame - there's plenty to go around.

Utter horseshit.

I think it's of course wrong to put the blame on homosexuals in such bigoted way, but I also think it's not 100% correct to say that HIV-infected homosexual males have nothing to do with HIV infection on females. Simply because many of them are BIsexual, aren't them? Not that's really a question of "blame" though, to begin with, but of seeing the routes of infection
. Not that engaging in risky behavior aware of that isn't to be condemned, though, which of course is another discussion entirely that shouldn't even have the whole lynching part mentioned in less than 5 miles away.

Isn't ignoring bisexuals much of the faulty reason of those who say that the heterosexual risk is somehow negligible?