AIDS is everyone’s problem, not just gays and junkies

Last Sunday was World AIDS Day.

When listening to the news on this topic, I realized that I… Last Sunday was World AIDS Day.

When listening to the news on this topic, I realized that I only know one person who is HIV-positive and I just found that out a few months ago. I didn’t know how to react or what to say when my friend told me. I never had to deal with this and had never seriously thought about it. I only know the basics about AIDS. This easily lets me see why our generation lives as if this horrible disease isn’t out there preying on the sexually active.

Our generation missed the onset of the AIDS epidemic. Just like the Vietnam or Cold wars, we think of AIDS as a part of our history. It seems more like an abstract term than a physical disease. We think that AIDS is something we don’t have to worry about. We can go and have sex with whomever we want. Only old fags have AIDS, right?

I believe this mentality is why “about half of the people now infected with the AIDS virus worldwide are women,” according to a Washington Post article reprinted in the Nov. 27 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

People our age, despite how much we are warned, love to have unprotected sex. “They look clean” and “she’s on the pill” are common and trite quotes heard among my friends. They live as if they can’t get AIDS because it won’t happen to them.

AIDS started out as a drug user or gay man’s problem. It was thought by some that gay men have AIDS like gay men have nice clothes. Most people thought that unless you were one of them you wouldn’t get it. Fred Phelps, preacher of the Westboro Baptist Church, is known to have signs at his anti-gay protests that read, “Thank God for AIDS” and “AIDS Cures Fags.” Such preaching reinforces the idea that only gay people get AIDS. This is not the case.

According to Peter Piot, the executive director of the joint U.N. program on AIDS, “We are far away from the gay, white male disease it was in the ’80s.” More than half of the people infected with AIDS are women. This means that unprotected sex has never been more dangerous.

You have men – especially our age – that run around and have sex with different women. One way or another they leave their load inside a woman and move on to the next one. This is where the spread occurs. Once a man has HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, they go dumping fluids into women. These women have a better chance of contracting the virus than an HIV-negative man having sex with a positive woman. Basic mechanics would suggest it is going to be easier for a negative woman to contract this disease when positive fluids are left inside her body than when a negative man temporarily places himself inside a positive body.

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day. She was telling me about a man she hooked up with. I asked if they had safe sex and she said no. She went on to tell me how it doesn’t feel as good if he has a condom on and he doesn’t like to wear them. When I asked her if she was worried about contracting a sexually transmitted infection, she told me, flat out, “No.”

This is the mentality that is going to kill her. This is the mentality that could kill you. Sex is fun. Sex is dangerous. Safe sex even has its risks. When is the last time you were tested for STIs? Have you ever?

If you have ever had unprotected sex, you need to get tested. If you are promiscuous but still practice safe sex you should get tested regularly. Even if you practice safe sex you can still get an STI. Human Papillomavirus – genital warts – can be contracted even if the man is wearing the condom. The touching of unprotected skin is all that is needed, which would consist of the base of the penis and the clitoris.

Women, are your chances of contracting AIDS low? Perhaps, but so is dying in a car accident. You wear a seatbelt just in case and your odds aren’t increasing in that risk. Your odds of contracting AIDS are increasing. Make sure you have protected sex every time. You have everything to lose.

Todd Brandon Morris is a columnist for The Pitt News. He can be contacted at tmorris@pittnews.com.