What are we to make of a Gay and Lesbian advocacy group launching an ad campaign like this?
Common wisdom would suggest that this is precisely the message that HIV/AIDS educators have been trying to eradicate. HIV/AIDS may disproportionately effect the gay community, but it is also increasingly plaguing women in the black community. Being heterosexual doesn’t protect you from infection. Only safe sex or abstinence can protect you from infection.
Doesn’t this ad perpetuate myths and stereotypes about HIV/AIDS and homosexuals? Well, maybe it is a little more complicated.
In Los Angeles, the data are very clear: though gay and bisexual men make up less than 7% of the population, they account for more than 75% of those living with HIV and AIDS. The hugely disproportionate impact of the epidemic on our community is undeniable and unacceptable, and has been so for 25 years.
For a variety of reasons, we’ve stopped talking with one another about HIV and as a result have disempowered ourselves—and future generations—from envisioning and working toward an end to this epidemic. In fact, we believe that our complacency has already led many in our community to accept the growing epidemic as a community norm. This is happening at the same time that the use of crystal methamphetamine and other drugs has skyrocketed, fueling new HIV infections.
The L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center aims to break the dangerous silence regarding HIV with the launch of an ad campaign this month targeting gay and bi men. The message: “HIV is a gay disease. Own It. End It.”
What do you think?