From the New York Times opinion section:
How Gay Men Saved Us From Mpox
April 16, 2023, 9:00 a.m. ETBy Ina Park and Dan Savage
Dr. Park is a professor of family and community medicine at the University of California San Francisco. Mr. Savage is an author.
Thank goodness those heroic gay men saved us so heroically from some obscure disease called Mpox that they didn’t even let become common enough that you or I had ever heard of it.
Oh, wait, Mpox is what they now call Monkeypox because Monkeypox was too memorable and the Authorities were worried that you’d remember it. And if I remember correctly, although who can remember back that far, gay men didn’t save us from monkeypox. Instead, they inflicted it on each other.
In fact, starting in the 9th paragraph of this op-ed, the authors admit that:
While the outbreak ended faster than many believed it would, it was far worse than it needed to be, representing both a public health triumph and a public health failure. Both health officials and the media failed to expediently warn and engage the gay community in the outbreak’s crucial first weeks.
When the first cases were reported among gay and bi men in the West, health authorities and the media couldn’t bring themselves to say the word “gay.” To avoid stigmatizing gay and bi men, early reports buried the lead. The Associated Press didn’t mention that this outbreak was being seen almost exclusively in gay men until 15 paragraphs into one report; other reports didn’t mention gay and bi men at all. A gay man scanning headlines in May of last year might have learned of an outbreak—but unless he had traveled to West Africa recently, or had contact with infected rodents or primates, he could have easily concluded that he wasn’t at risk.
While this desire to avoid stigmatizing gay and bisexual men was understandable, it wasn’t helpful. We know gay sex has been unfairly blamed for everything from natural disasters to the fall of Rome. But in their efforts to avoid stigmatizing the community, health authorities and the media failed to effectively warn gay and bi men. Ignorant of the threat as the virus spread, gay and bi men couldn’t take steps to protect themselves and their partners.
I look forward to the New York Times article that in the 47th paragraph admits that the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s wasn’t caused by homophobia or by Ronald and/or Nancy Reagan, but was instead a direct outgrowth of 1970s Gay Liberation, as seen from its epicenters: Castro Street, Christopher Street, and Santa Monica Boulevard.
