Friday, January 18, 2008

The Gay Disease That Wasn't



















A few days ago the media was full of stories about a virulent new bacterial infection that was spreading among gay men in San Francisco and Boston.

The story was extremely alarming and full of talk about how if it ever entered the "general population" it would be UNSTOPPABLE. And how there appeared to be a link to gay sex. And the implicit message was that those filthy gay sex maniacs are going to KILL us all.

Having read the complete report I tried to point out in this post that there was something terribly wrong with the way the story was being spun. How NO connection to sex had been made. How the MRSA bug was already out there. How it wasn't a "gay disease."

But that didn't stop the disgusting homophobes at Small Dead Animals from coming out from under their rocks...and spewing hate at the gay community.

I'm not going to link to the post that was written by that foul bigot Kathy Shaidle ....under the headline: So What colour Ribbon will THIS be?

But here are some of the comments:

The ribbon colour should match that of dead flesh.

Do you think that God knew something that we didn't when he brought down his laws about homosexuality?

The only people who can be comfortable around a gay people these days are other gay people.It is not possible for gay people to coexist with straight people unless they opt to drink a cup of shut the f**k up every morning. Their perversion is like a religion.

A gay guy with flesh eating disease ? A politically incorrect person (not me) would refer to that as rotting fruit.

Something gay men do that is common amongst them all is causing them to be 13 times more likely to be infected. We all know this to be anal sex with more than one partner. So what does this tell us? It isn't rocket science.....you don't have to believe in God to realize that when you mess with the natural order of things, there are dire consequences. How many more dead bodies do you want as proof?

I'm not a religious man at all.but if these were my only two choices, I would rather live with people who spread the gospel than with people who spread deadly diseases. How is this a "normal persons" problem?

You f*ck a monkey ... you get monkey problems.


It's truly disgusting stuff ....aimed at an already victimized community.To try to further marginalize it... and whip up a murderous hatred of gay people.

And what makes it even WORSE is that the story itself is bullshit. As the Centres for Disease Control has clarified.














MRSA is a common cause of skin infections throughout the United States. These infections occur in men, women, adults, children, and persons of all races and sexual orientations, and are known to be transmitted by close skin-to-skin contact.

The strains of MRSA described in the recent Annals of Internal Medicine have mostly been identified in certain groups of men who have sex with men (MSM), but have also been found in some persons who are not MSM. It is important to note that the groups of MSM in which these isolates have been described are not representative of all MSM, so conclusions can not be drawn about the prevalence of these strains among all MSM.

The groups studied in this report may share other characteristics or behaviors that facilitate spread of MRSA, such as frequent skin-to-skin contact.

Like a gym ....or a cart in a community supermarket...but not necessarily anal or ANY other kind of sex.

MRSA is typically transmitted through skin-to-skin contact, which occurs during a variety of activities, including sex. There is no evidence at this time to suggest that it MRSA is a sexually-transmitted infection in the classical sense.

So much for all that hate. So much for the science. So much for the crappy media coverage.

At the end of the day all I can do is wonder how much more DAMAGE has been done?

How much LONGER will I have to fight these truly diseased homophobes?

And of course the biggy.

When will this MADNESS end?

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P.S. I want to acknowledge the efforts of the decent straight blogger Jeff Davidson who blogs here......and who jumped into that hideous Small Dead Animals thread to defend us.

And of course got bashed by the bigots. But still managed to make them look even MORE like the crazy hatemongers they are. Thanks Jeff. Good work!!

Oh yeah...one final thing... Why is the racist AND homophobic bigot Kathy Shaidle blogging at the CBC?

6 comments:

JJ said...

Great post Simon, I was totally disgusted to see this story get spun that way too. FEDs are incredibly easy to catch, I've had one myself (not serious enough for hospital, but knocked me on my ass and required mega drugs to get rid of, the same stuff they give you for anthrax).

Also, even though it's been sighted among gays, who's to say it isn't already in the so-called "general population"? For that matter, that's probably where it started, so I don't see the point of the hysteria when it hits the gay community.

Jeff said...

anytime my friend. thanks for the kind words.

my strategy at SDA is to drop a bomb and let them lose their minds while they expose themselves for the hateful people they truly are.

Anonymous said...

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-r

Simon said...

Hi JJ!!! I admit I do have a bit of a scientific background but honestly you only need common sense to realize that it doesn't add up. Because my hemachromatosis makes me more vulnerable to bacterial infections (bacteria LOVE iron) I've had two serious ones after walking in pools of muddy water ...once on an old Scottish battlefield...once walking the dog. And since I have to go to the hospital on a regular basis I'm terrified of catching something. And as for the general population thing...in this case since you can contract it anywhere not just through sex ...gays ARE the general population.
I didn't mention it in the post but I traced the source of the misinformation to the university's PR department that put out a release and hyped it so that newspapers would pay attention. These days that's typical of how universities operate...but they should have realized that in this case at least they were being irresponsible. And that our embattled didn't need that kind of fake scapegoating...

Simon said...

Hi Jeff!!!

You're a braver man than I am. I wouldn't venture into that swamp for ANYTHING.

So thanks again...

Simon said...

Hi Rashid!!! Hey that's GREAT!!!What a neat idea. Good for you. I'm beginning to think that your generation of young gay men is better than I thought it was. So I'm going to have to put in a good word for you with the Big Guy. When you get to paradise you won't just get 70 virgins. You'll get 100!!!! But only if you WANT them... ;)