@Mike403 The statistics say gay men are 25 times more likely than average to contract HIV. I think it's just the activities involved make for a higher risk of transmission - also possibly a cultural part where gay men are discouraged from sharing their identity with doctors due to stigmatization. But I was a little shocked when I was at a blood donation and one of the questions asked what your sexual orientation was, presumably to exclude you if you were at higher risk. Seemed a bit discriminatory.
Yes, HIV is transmissible via straight sex. Active and infectious virus can hang out in vaginal fluids just as well as it can in semen.
The short answer, @Mike403, is "homophobia." The longer answer....
In 1980, Ken Horne, a gay sex worker in San Francisco, California, became the first person to be diagnosed with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in the United States. A year later, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report described five cases of Pneumocystis pneumonia among young “homosexual” men living in Los Angeles, California. By 1982, the term “gay-related immune deficiency” gained traction in the media and among health care professionals to describe the assumed inherent link between homosexuality and what would later be known as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). ... As significant as these time markers are, the HIV story in the United States likely dates back two or more decades before the 1980s. Robert Rayford, a Black adolescent who grew up in the Old North neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri, died of pneumonia in 1969, after enduring a severe chlamydia infection and Kaposi’s sarcoma. In 1987, western blot postmortem testing on Rayford’s tissue samples confirmed HIV infection. Although we may never know for certain, Rayford may have contracted HIV selling sex or, like too many gay and bisexual youths worldwide, because he was the target of sexual violence. [source]
In 1980, Ken Horne, a gay sex worker in San Francisco, California, became the first person to be diagnosed with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in the United States.
A year later, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report described five cases of Pneumocystis pneumonia among young “homosexual” men living in Los Angeles, California.
By 1982, the term “gay-related immune deficiency” gained traction in the media and among health care professionals to describe the assumed inherent link between homosexuality and what would later be known as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
...
As significant as these time markers are, the HIV story in the United States likely dates back two or more decades before the 1980s. Robert Rayford, a Black adolescent who grew up in the Old North neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri, died of pneumonia in 1969, after enduring a severe chlamydia infection and Kaposi’s sarcoma. In 1987, western blot postmortem testing on Rayford’s tissue samples confirmed HIV infection. Although we may never know for certain, Rayford may have contracted HIV selling sex or, like too many gay and bisexual youths worldwide, because he was the target of sexual violence. [source]
When people who are hated get hit by something bad, it's usually seen as their own fault. It's "God's wrath" or some such thing. And even if other people are getting it, it's ultimately the fault of those dirty [insert hated group here]... who, often enough, got sick (or as sick as they did) because of the conditions that hatred imposed on them.
It's a hop, skip, and a jump from "if you were straight you wouldn't be sick" to "if you were Caucasian you wouldn't have sickle cell"—it's the same pattern of thought.
"This bad thing mostly happens to people who [fill in the blank], so [fill in the blank] is bad."
Incidentally, HIV probably jumped from chimps to humans when humans hunted infected chimps for meat. There really is no telling where a virus will go after it makes the leap to humans, or which populations it'll end up primarily circulating in.
You can guess it'll probably be a group that's hated, treated badly, without resources. That's life for you!
Edit:
If you were wondering why it's mostly gay men who get HIV, the answer is that 1) the virus does really, really well in butts, 2) sex ed has historically not been great in any area in America but especially not when it comes to teaching about things like butt sex or multiple partners, and 3) people who've been told their whole orientation is evil aren't likely to listen when they're told having sex with lots of different people is evil. [source]
Yes but mainly because I am afraid the scary headlines about monkey pox will hurt my business. I was on the phone with both the Philadelphia and the Bucks county health department yesterday to ask about getting a vaccine but they are impossible to get right now and you can only get them if you’ve had a an exposure.
With Covid I never actually got it from Cuddling. I finally caught it this past Christmas Eve with my family. So far was I able to avoid catching Covid during Cuddle sessions for 2 1/2 years so I think I can avoid monkey pox where there are obvious lesions/blisters
@xandriarain I guess you can’t Control who comes to the family xmas party but you can control who you cuddle
You can’t control getting Covid really. This has been the problem all along. Everyone will get it, everyone. It is endemic, and people have been silenced and black balled from saying this same thing. The vaccine will help with symptoms. That’s it, that’s always been it. If we let our political correctness win just like in Covid, monkeypox will have the same effects. It is 99% running wild in men who have sex with men. Target this community heavily so it doesn’t get out of control.
Diseases has always been a part of life. I never locked myself away because I was afraid that I might catch the flu. As long as it is understood and doctors are able to keep symptoms under control, that is what really matters.
This guy said it best:
“It's not an STD—that is, it isn't spread through semen or via sex.”
Monkeypox has been detected in semen. It has not been proved that it can or cannot be spread through semen. WHO and the CDC are currently investigating that possibility. In the meantime, the statement that it cannot be spread through semen or sex should be viewed as unproved.
https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/sexualhealth/index.html https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/who-looks-into-reports-monkeypox-virus-semen-2022-06-15/
@JohnfromVienna - I see an STD as something that can only transmit through sexual intercourse and no way else (other than possibly a blood transfusion).
@Mike403 - You're absolutely right. But since early identified victims in the '80s were from the gay community, it was initially branded as a disease primarily targeting homosexuals (which became a barrier to prevention and treatment since there were such stigmas toward being gay in the government, among the clergy, and in the medical field). I recall at the time a lot of media reports acting like it was just something that affected gays and no one else had to be concerned.
Mike403, I don't agree with that definition. Herpes, Syphilis, and HPV, for example, are considered STDs and can be spread through skin to skin contact or contact with open sores, just like monkeypox.
I see cuddling becoming extinct soon enough.
Anyone that makes money doing this better start looking for another job.
After COVID and now this, the amount of people going to cuddlers is going to drop drastically.
@JohnfromVienna - Then I wouldn't consider them STDs. It makes it feel safe to be around that person as long as you're not having sex with them.
Great, now lice and scabies and molluscum contagiosum are STDs. Fantastic.
Note also that the presence of virus in a substance is not the same thing as the presence of contagious virus in a substance, and that if you think it's reasonable to give up and assume everyone's going to get Covid but don't think it's reasonable to let people carry on having sex when there's monkeypox about, something's apparently gone wrong with your consistency checker.
STDs should be reserved for something only transmitted via sexual intercourse like HIV. I'm not worried that I'm gonna catch it by cuddling with somebody.
What is "give up"? Give up being lockdowned, mandatory masks everywhere, mandatory vaccinations to go to work & social events, permanent zoom for work/school? Then yeah, I'll give that stuff up. We should have given that up by now. I used to know personally only a couple of people who had Covid. Now, I barely know anyone who hasn't gotten it. Every politician has gotten Covid it seems. Monkeypox along with HIV is high in the gay community because they have typically been involved in high risk sexually activities. IE anal sex with no protection. You want to live that lifesytle? That's not for me to judge. But monkeypox really only effects that community now. Educate and provide services for them. Otherwise, carry on with your normal life.
Mike403, I think your definition is not generally accepted. A criteria is whether it CAN be passed on through sexual contact, not whether it CAN ONLY be passed on through sexual contact.
Here's one definition of STD from a US Gov website: "A disease caused by infection with certain bacteria, viruses, or other microorganisms that CAN BE passed from one person to another through blood, semen, vaginal fluids, or other body fluids, during oral, anal, or genital sex with an infected partner . . . " It doesn't say "can only be." vhttps://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/sexually-transmitted-disease
@JohnfromVienna - I don't care what some other entity says. I see it as something only transmitted via sexual contact and that's what I'm sticking with.
I know a lot more people who have gotten COVID now too, because they stopped taking precautions.
@WriterGF - It's never going away. Why would anyone want a life of staying home and isolating themselves from people?
@Mike403 , the distinction that is made is that it is often transmitted during sex. Not because it is a sexually transmitted disease, but because sex requires skin to skin contact and face contact. It is not transmitted by the private areas or any kind of excretion, but the reason they say it is transmitted primarily by men who have sex with men is that prolonged skin to skin contact usually happens most often in the modern day if it is a sexually based encounter(of course, us on this site are the exception, where we will have extended platonic contact), but usually in most everyday circumstances outside the cuddle communities, prolonged contact usually happens during sex with massage being the only other common reason for prolonged contact I can think of. It's not that it is transmitted sexually, it's just that that is a good way of getting it because we aren't often in such close contact otherwise. Does that make sense?
@Mike403 HIV is definitely not only transmitted in gay sex, but happens equally between two straight people. It's still weaponized as a quote on quote "gay disease" due to ignorance, bigotry, and homphobia. You can think of it much the same as how Covid was sometimes blamed on Asian people by people who called it the China virus and Kung flu(despite the fact that it is really an everybody virus and it just showed willful bigotry, racism, and ignorance. Whether it is non white people, gay men, or whoever, we must stop stigmatizing diseases and putting the blame on marginalized groups. A disease can start anywhere.
I still have not gotten covid because I have taken all the precautions every day since this whole thing started. However, I have been in my share of risky situations too, so I am one of those covid super dodgers!
@AGnihon - Trump called it the China virus because it came from China. He's not always politically correct.
@Mike403 Definitely we shouldn't still lock down, but we can still take basic measures like wearing masks in crowded places and limiting our outdoor exposures by prioritizing which risky outings we are willing to take and which we are not. The point is to get out into the world, but maybe cut down on the frivolous outings and prioritize the special experiences, like the occasional outdoor dining experience and foreign travel, while limiting less exciting exposures. Prioritizing who you have contact with based on whether or not you trust their hygiene and precautionary measures is also important. By limiting our outings to only the most desirable outings, we can also help our mental health by having more time we can do things at home compared to 2019 when we were almost never able to be at home, but we won't have to be fully locked down like it's 2020 either. That's my take.
@AGnihon - Haha! No. I'm not gonna wear a mask for the rest of my life and I will enjoy going to concerts and everything I did pre-covid.
The thing about calling COVID the China virus is that early on people from all political persuasions called it that or called it the Wuhan virus. Viruses have always been named after the places of origin.
As for naming things STDS all sorts of official public and private health authorities refer to all sorts of viruses, bacteria and other infections as STDS regardless of whether or not they can be spread by other means besides sex. By only calling things STDS if they can only be transmitted through sex then just about nothing would be called STDs. Even HIv, which can be transferred by sharing needles or blood transfusions.
@Mike403 Be my guest, but a lot of other people are willing to take easy, basic, and painless steps to avoid getting sick (like do you want to be stuck in bed for a week?) like wearing a mask. People in other countries think we are children for complaining about something as simple as wearing a mask.
@AGnihon - Diseases has been a thing way before COVID. Less people are dying from it. You think we should permanently give up things we enjoy such as live music because we "might get sick"? I was all for taking precautions in 2020 and part of 2021, but this is getting way out of hand.
@Mike403 I never said to give up things. I said we should continue to wear masks and go to less events. We can still go to all the events we like, just less often. That's my point. But living in complete denial is not smart either. I personally will wear a mask in indoor public spaces when around people I don't know for the rest of my life because it seems these kinds of pandemics are going to be much more common in the future. I will not of course wear it when with friends and other people who I trust to take the right precautions of course, but around strangers, yes.