Comments on: Naming the Patient at the Center of Porn’s Production Moratorium: Ethical Dilemmas and the Policy of AIDS Exceptionalism https://mikesouth.com/hiv/naming-the-patient-at-the-center-of-porns-production-moratorium-ethical-dilemmas-and-the-policy-of-aids-exceptionalism-24149/ The institute for the advance study of insensitivity and pornography Wed, 05 Jul 2023 11:44:34 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2 By: LurkingReader https://mikesouth.com/hiv/naming-the-patient-at-the-center-of-porns-production-moratorium-ethical-dilemmas-and-the-policy-of-aids-exceptionalism-24149/#comment-32381 Mon, 16 Apr 2018 18:13:02 +0000 http://mikesouth.com/?p=24149#comment-32381 LAMBDA was on the right side of the fight back then. We have much to thank them for yet we also have to blame them and rights organizations for much of the continued stigma around HIV.

Most readers here weren’t born yet when the first tests were rolled out to protect the blood supply. They have no concept of the fear everyone faced once HIV was identified as a blood borne pathogen. Ryan White hitting the front pages made everyone feel vulnerable. We couldn’t dismiss AIDS as a gay disease anymore.

Gay rights orgs get the blame for perpetuating the very myths they sought to prevent. Why did it take 30 years to discover the effects vaginal flora play in preventing or facilitating transmission?
In short because they were so busy protecting MSM gays from HIV stigma no one was looking beyond MSM (anal) transmission and prevention.

PReP is a game changer and hopefully it will change the game from discussing who is a needle drug user and who’s having sex with who to the biological and/or anatomical realities of HIV prevention.

Before PReP was FDA approved Gilead studies showed amazing successes in MSM and dismal failures in the FSW (female sex worker) trials. It took five years to do studies on isolated vaginal flora and identify hormonal birth control as an additional issue. The rush to protect MSM gays has created a false sense of security that PReP is a cure all…it isn’t.

FSC and the industry share some blame in keeping HIV stigma alive too. They created two separate testing and prevention protocols. Straights were tested, gays used condoms. Until 2011 if a straight performer tested positive they were officially (off the books of course) named and shamed. FSC was so focused on protecting gay rights they forgot that human rights are universal.

Five years ago when Cameron Bay was being named, shamed and blamed HepC was a front page industry issue too. HIV and HepC are both blood borne pathogens. TV commercials target ‘baby boomers’ to suggest they ask to get tested….because doctors can’t pre-emptively HepC test. Why is that?

HIV laws extend far beyond HIV. Patients must ask for a HepC test. Docs don’t automatically order it when they write a script for age 50+ colonoscopy.

Media and marketing to targeted populations are largely dependent on the rights orgs that define the populations.

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