Activist Gary Glenn, of the American Family Association-Michigan, talked the religious-right news service AgapePress into distorting HIV/AIDS statistics on Sept. 22. Glenn inflated the incidence of new HIV/AIDS cases in metro Detroit by one-third by confusing new cases with a cumulative total of all cases.
He defended and compounded his inept handling of HIV/AIDS data, right here at XGW, this morning.
He is also failing to consider that the CDC category ‘men who have sex with men’ is an inconsistent one. In the early years of the epidemic, from 1982 into the mid 90’s, it required only one same gender experience to be put into this category. Thus from the beginning, the sort has tended to move people towards that descriptor. Thus someone who had had ONE gay experience, long before the parameters of the epidemic, would be classified into the MWHSWM field. From the very origin of the AIDS pandemic, the figures have been unreliable and inconsistent.
The plain fact has always been that what is euphemistically called ‘anal receptive’ is the main venue for HIV transmission. The category MWHSWM does not cover this criteria exclusively. It simply obfuscates the issue. Men who have sex with men orally are at reduced risk, though just what that reduction is remains unclear. Men who have non-insertive sex are pretty much home free. But all are included in the CDC category.
What is further remarkable, IMHO, is that circumcision status is still nor looked into.
Bump. I’m just reminding myself to update the page. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain….