HIV is (only?) a gay disease

Άρθρο του Henderson William

Advocate 7/11/2006, Issue 974, p15

Gay activists have spent many years trying to convince the world that HIV shows no preference for any group of people, especially them. So when the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center launched a new public-service campaign in L.A. declaring that "HIV is a gay disease," it turned more than a few heads.

"This is a disease of the immune system, and defining it as belonging to one high-risk group has not been very helpful in the past," said Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. "There's no value in having it owned by the gay community. It belongs to all of humanity."
But Lorri L. Jean, CEO of the center, said the ads, which have appeared in gay bars and local gay publications since September, were also supported by many HIV/AIDS service providers. "HIV is a gay disease," she said. "It's also a black disease, a Latino disease, a youth disease, a senior's disease, and a women's disease. But in Los Angeles it's overwhelmingly a disease of gay and bisexual men of all races and ethnicities."

Phill Wilson, executive director of the Los Angeles-based Black AIDS Institute, said anything that gets people talking is a good thing. His group will soon debut its own advertising campaign with the tagline "AIDS in America is a black disease." "Nobody fights an enemy that they can't identify," he said. "We're engaged in a real war, and we have to take risks. If the campaign generates conversation, shakes people up, and gives AIDS the attention it deserves, then it's worth the effort."