The criminalization of HIV is a huge problem – especially for the bareback community because so many in the bareback community are poz and bareback sex is the leading cause of HIV infection. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while now you know I’m a huge advocate for personal responsibility. I believe it’s the neg guy’s responsibility to ask about status and protect himself as necessary. And I believe it’s the poz guy’s responsibility to not lie when a sex partner asks about his status (evading the question I can sorta understand in some situations, but outright lies are a huge no-no).

The problem is that too often the law doesn’t work that way – remarkably the neg guy isn’t responsible for his own health – all the blame gets put on the poz guy who can get sent off to jail because he didn’t answer a question that was never asked. But not only that… Poz guys can get put in jail even if there was no harm done and his accuser is still HIV negative.

The impact of stigma on the lives of real people is the topic in this week’s In The Life broadcast and they focus a lot on the criminalization of HIV. Take a few minutes and watch the video…

Continued in part two…

If you think the status quo is OK because a few states have gay marriage, think again. The program pointed out that Iowa has gay marriage, but they also have one of the most draconian HIV criminalization laws in the US.

With the US swinging right politically we’re going to see more of this sort of thing. While being a vocal radical isn’t everyone’s style, take the little day-to-day steps that, together, can make a big difference. Here’s a map showing the states that have criminalized HIV. Next time you take a vacation – go to one of the white states. New York and New England are a great place to go. 🙂  Or if you’re thinking of moving – pick a white state.

Even if you’re not poz you should care about this because people you know are poz and (especially if you’re a barebacker) you could be poz at some point.

And don’t forget to bring HIV criminalization up in conversations with friends. Tell your friends the stories you saw in the videos… It could be you in those videos or it could be one of your friends…

I haven’t really been in the mood to fuck the last few days (sorta am, but sorta not), plus my dog ate the pills I use to help my dick get nice and hard and thick, so… You get something that’s not exactly a hookup story…

After my post the other day comparing smoking and HIV as problems for the gay community, I did a little more research. These numbers are as accurate as I can get them, but not perfect… They’re a lot more accurate than the numbers in my last post.

For starters, 276,000 men die from smoking related causes each year. Pile on top of that that 41.6% of gay men smoke compared to 28.6% of the general population and we’re 1.45 times more likely to smoke. So, the leap I’m taking is saying that if we’re 1.45 more likely to smoke we’re 1.45 times more likely to die of smoking related causes. So our 10% of the male population would actually be more like 14.5% of the smoking deaths.

Now, on top of that smoking accelerates the start of AIDS among people with HIV, and HIV accelerates smoking-induced emphysema, and you see the 14.5% is actually a bit low. So let’s be conservative and say 15% of male smoking deaths are gay men. That means over 41,000 gay men die of smoking related causes each year in the United States.

Taking a look at HIV… The CDC says 12,543 people died of HIV related causes in 2005 (that number is somewhat lower than the people with AIDS who die since people with AIDS can die of many other causes as well). The CDC also sas 73% of the deaths were in men. That means just over 9,000 men died of HIV, and not all of those are gay men. If we said 80% of those deaths were gay men (a guess), and rounded up (not in our favor), then about 7,500 gay men die of HIV each year.

Again, those numbers are rough estimates, but I believe I’m making assumptions that work against the point I’m trying to make, not in favor…

So when I say gay men are 5 times more likely to die of smoking related causes than HIV related cause, I think it’s actually higher than that…

Now why isn’t there the outrage and intensity of feelings about smoking that we see about HIV and barebacking?

UPDATE:

Four years after I figured out that smoking was more deadly than HIV, researchers have come to the same conclusion:

The study demonstrates the very potent hazards of smoking and also confirms that patients with well-controlled HIV are able to have longer, healthier lives than HIV patients who smoke.

In fact…

…the study found that 60% of the deaths among HIV patients was associated with smoking.