HIV debate?

[Conscripted]

not sure if anyone noticed but there seems to be a lot of gay bashing recently by a certain health minister on how gay men are responsible for the AIDS 'epidemic' today here. what do you think? i don't think that is a fair criticism. of course he is prob right. it does seem that many gay men have a complacent attitude but he should not single the whole community out like that. what is needed is to promote awareness and prevent the spread of the disease in all various ways, be it heterosexual or homosexual. singling out things like the Nation party is not constructive in my opinion. this is surely not the kind of tolerant, inclusive society we are looking for right?

p.s. to the moderator, this is allowed to be discussed here right? not a taboo subject i presume?

[PhantomX]

No definitely not taboo... as long as you don't go around shoving your....up somebody's rear end ...then it will go from being taboo to you getting the boot!

[yah, lah]

not sure if anyone noticed but there seems to be a lot of gay bashing recently by a certain health minister on how gay men are responsible for the AIDS 'epidemic' today here. what do you think? i don't think that is a fair criticism. of course he is prob right. it does seem that many gay men have a complacent attitude but he should not single the whole community out like that. what is needed is to promote awareness and prevent the spread of the disease in all various ways, be it heterosexual or homosexual. singling out things like the Nation party is not constructive in my opinion. this is surely not the kind of tolerant, inclusive society we are looking for right?

p.s. to the moderator, this is allowed to be discussed here right? not a taboo subject i presume?

It is not only confined to the gay populations of the world anymore. The more we sleep around with different partners each time, whether we are gay or not, the more chances we have of becoming infected with Aids virus.

So. decided for yourselves......do you want to be infected and then infect your long time partner/wife/husband or do you want to remain healthy :

[Guest]

the important thing is getting people to use comdoms. it's impossible to keep people from having sex with different partnesrs... and it would also be a loss for all involved as nothing beats sex. so just wear a rubber and enjoy the ride.

[moloch71]

I'm not gay, and I'm well against gay bashing. But the figures to support a 'conclusion' that the gay community is fuelling the HIV epidemic are there ...

There were 312 new HIV cases reported last year in Singapore, a 28% increase over 2003.
Of those cases 90% were males, with 1/3 being gays.

There are now more than 2,000 HIV/Aids patients in Singapore, but the Ministry of Health estimates that for every Aids patient identified, there are possibly two to four undiagnosed.
(Source: ST last thursday)


Those are some pretty grim statistics, I think the upshot is: if you are going to have casual sex, use a condom, and preferrably with a girl !

[jpatokal]

I'm not gay, and I'm well against gay bashing. But the figures to support a 'conclusion' that the gay community is fuelling the HIV epidemic are there ...

There were 312 new HIV cases reported last year in Singapore, a 28% increase over 2003. Of those cases 90% were males, with 1/3 being gays.

And what about the 67% who got infected by hetero sex...?

[moloch71]

yeah that 2/3, tho im interested to know who they are doing if 90% of men are getting it; there has to be some really busy girls out there !

and from the distant bad recollection ive got, didnt masters and johnston estimate that 1/4 men have homosexual tendancies ?

if 25% of the pop are counting for 33% of cases, thats a skewed distribution, isnt it ?


still, its like the say, 50% of some statistics are just made up to prove a point

[Conscripted]

isn't singling out the gay sex as the main cause for the upsurge in new cases telling people that hetero sex is 'safe'? and blaming foreigners for coming here and spreading AIDS is really far fetched isn't it? the correct message should not be abstinence. that is not realistic. instead using condoms should be the primary message. taking the moral high ground is not practical.

[moloch71]

I agree with everything you said then conscripted.

I'm sure this politican is just 'taking the high ground' so he can to make himself 'popular' in a democratic system

[Bafana]

I have really good Singaporean way of controlling HIV/AIDS in Singapore lah.

We tax sex.

BTW is Homo sex real sex or just practise sex for the real thing???

Every year we will increase the tax rate so as to discourage younger people taking up sex until later in life. Urhm BTW does'nt the new Cigarette Taxes suck Lor.

The only real way to control HIV/AIDS infection rate increases in Singapore is stop all the China/Filopino/Indonesian/Vietnam/Malay/Indian hookers/KTV Hostesses from pouring through Changi Airport and taking VISA runs to JB. Then we stop all Citizens, Residents, Expats and Tourist from visiting any HIV/AIDS infected sex tourism industry in the region and the rest of the world (Refer listed countries above and add Nigeria and Southern Africa - There goes old computer parts sales down the tube again lah).

Hey wait a minute!!!

In second thoughts lets not...

I know lets all use condoms and behave like responsible adults whether we like back door benny action or a sweet hot fine woman or two.

How to control except at a personal level as humans are design to replicate themselves (Actually DNA if you read the same books as me)???

[Conscripted]

did anyone read the papers today? there was an interesting interview with the most vilified minister here i.e. a certain health minister. ( we know who) anyway, i'm confused now about my stance on him. previously i opposed his views or more accurately, the way he voiced his opinions. i felt he was promoting homophobia. and i thought it was funny the presenters were taking the mickey out of himb at the recent theatre awards. but what he said in the interview today made some sense. i was surprised that he seemed like he treated the gays and straights equally. hmm....interesting. to him, he was trying to get the message across to gays. but is promoting homophobia at the same time ok? is it a necessary evil? but i do admit the gay community needs a wake up call. i just hope we can go beyond this and do our best to stop this HIV spreading among everyone. just practise SAFE SEX!!

[Guest]

What is interesting is that the stats. say that 90% of new cases are males but the minister is only attributing this to gay males. What about Singaporean businessmen who go overseas and frequent brothels and prostitutes and have mistresses overseas - these are likely reasons for the increase.

In fact, the minister lacks basic logic - he says the beach party creates more HIV cases. Is he insinuating that gay people only have sex once a year at this party? That is the most naive thing I have ever heard!