Activists Demand Action Over People Rejecting HIV-Positive Partners
People blasted for 'HIV-phobia' over fears of contracting deadly virus
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Activists are demanding action in response to people rejecting sexual partners who are HIV-positive, according to reports.
Lobbyists are now accusing people of "HIV-phobia" for refusing to sleep with people who carry the deadly sexually transmitted virus.
Earlier this month, the editor of pro-LGBTQ outlet Queerty, David Hudson, wrote an article blasting other gay men for not sleeping with men they know are HIV-positive.
Hudson lectures his "HIV-phobic" readers to consider the "consequences of your particular decisions:"
"I don’t disagree that everyone should take responsibility for their own sexual health.
"My purpose in writing this is merely to ask you to give a thought to the potential consequences of your particular decisions.
"If someone is HIV positive, knows their status, is on effective medication and has consistently had an undetectable viral load, they cannot pass on the virus.
"PrEP is also widely available in the US and several other countries to prevent people from acquiring HIV. And condoms are also, of course, widely available."
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Hudson goes on to argue that "nobody's perfect" when considering sexual partners, suggesting that rejecting someone who could kill them is merely being overly fussy:
"If you find yourself single and contemplating why, bear in mind it might be because you blocked ‘Mr Right’ when you read he was HIV positive on Grindr.
"Of course, some will say, 'My perfect man doesn’t [have] HIV!'.
"Well, I hope you’re not too old before you realize: Nobody’s perfect."
Despite Hudson's attempts to argue the case for sleeping with HIV partners, it appears as though his claims about transmitting the virus aren't entirely accurate, however.
For one thing, according to LifeSite News, an undetectable viral load isn’t a permanent or perfect safeguard against STDs.
For another, there’s the loaded premise that not wanting to expose oneself to a deadly disease is merely nitpicking, or that it’s irrational to have reservations about dating a carrier of something that’s primarily transmitted by irresponsible behavior.
Elsewhere, campaigners are taking matters into their own hands to tackle "HIV-phobia."
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According to The Telegraph, activists in New Zealand have “launched the world’s first HIV positive sperm bank in an effort to reduce the stigma round the virus.”
The description of this bizarre new endeavor is: “Online sperm bank ‘Sperm Positive’ has begun with three HIV positive male donors, who all have an undetectable viral load, meaning the virus cannot be passed on even through unprotected sex.
"While the amount of the virus in their blood is so low it cannot be detected by standard methods, it does not mean the HIV has been completely cured by the treatment.”
Backers of the HIV sperm bank hope to have women lining up for blocks to take this totally unnecessary risk that does absolutely no good to anybody whatsoever.
Sperm Positive donor Damien Rule-Neal told The Telegraph that he was pleased to participate as “there is a lack of education and understanding in New Zealand about what an undetectable status meant and that he had experienced stigma about living with HIV in his personal life and his professional life.”
In fact, he says, he knows many people with HIV who went on to have children, and The Telegraph noted that “HIV-positive men can father children with minimal risk of transmission to their partner or their baby as long as they have up-to-date advice, support, and HIV medications, even if their virus is detectable.”
