Post #16503
July 20, 2014, 08:39:55 PM
I'm actually against this, and I'll tell you why.
First, it goes back to the pill culture medicine has adopted in the West...for any problem, the solution is usually to take a pill. If you got heartburn, take a pill instead of adjusting your diet, even though it's been shown that they make heartburn worse in the long-run if you take them over time. Depressed? Take a pill, even though study after study has shown that diet and exercise is as successful at treating depression as pill are. And now, practicing unsafe sex? Don't bother changing your risky behaviours, just take a pill! These things happen because people can't be bothered to do the right thing to start with, so we take pills to compensate for it, and it's a bonanza for the pharmaceutical companies.
And at the end of the day, men who have sex with men don't just automatically have a higher risk for HIV, they have a higher risk for HIV because they more regularly engage in riskier behaviours. I remember a few years ago, I had met someone on a gay community website that lived maybe a few hours away from me, and we talked over a bit of time, he seemed cool...he was college educated and very knowledgeable about issues in the gay community...and then one day he mentions he wants to bareback me if we meet. I'm like...what? Of course he went through the whole song and dance about how it feels better and of course he doesn't have any STDs and it's not a big deal, but it is. I was shocked that someone so aware of these issues would want to have unprotected sex with someone he had never physically met before.
And it's not unusual. I browse sites like Adam4Adam where people meetup with complete strangers to have sex. I see on Craigslist married guys putting ads out to have sex with guys 'on the downlow'. I think everyone in this region knows I'm all for free love and casual sex, and the fact that most people go beyond even what I would feel comfortable with says something. I would never bareback with anyone I hadn't been in a committed relationship in for a long time AND had been tested. I would never engage in any sexual activity at all with someone I didn't at least consider a trustworthy friend. These are just common-sense things people should be doing to protect themselves, and the fact that people aren't is why new HIV infections are such a problem.
Social, medical, and technological advances have come together to give LGBTQ people unparalleled freedom and convenience to live their lives and seek out intimacy with a wide variety of partners. Unfortunately, it's also led to a dangerous sense of complacency. When interviewed, researcher after researcher has expressed that the reason HIV is spreading is because gay people don't see it as a big deal anymore, and young gay people can't remember a time when having HIV was basically a death sentence. It goes back to...oh, if I get HIV, I'll just take a pill. No big deal. Our whole attitude about this is wrong.
And besides that, how does this come across to people who are already struggling with their sexuality, especially teens? And how are they supposed to kindly ask their parents to get them HIV meds cause they're sexually active with other men? Is that supposed to be the gay version of a girl asking for the pill? "Well, I like this guy, but I heard if you have sex with men you have to take a pill to keep from getting the gay disease." And that's probably the worst thing about this...we risk going back to the 80s-era idea that HIV is a gay disease, and we risk casting further stigma on groups that have come too far to have more cast on them.
Not even to mention the cost of taking it to start with. As it is, we struggle to ensure people that actually have HIV have access to medication and can afford it. We struggle to be able to send it cheaply to places like Africa that would have no hope of being able to buy full-cost. What would it do to the price and the supply if healthy people were to start taking it as prevention? You're suddenly talking about tens of millions of additional users.
Seems like a lot of issues to deal with, when the solution is to just be more careful about riskier behaviours.
