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Comment by Amezarak | Hacker News Reader

I can't imagine there's any statistics about the rate of HIV infections among feminists, but if we limit the discussion to men who have sex with men, he is correct.

https://www.aids.gov/hiv-aids-basics/hiv-aids-101/statistics...

In 2014 in the US, men who have sex with men constitute more than two-thirds of new HIV diagnoses despite being 1-10% of the population.

In the 21 worst-off US cities, 1 out of every 5 gay men (!) have HIV: http://www.webmd.com/hiv-aids/news/20100923/1-in-5-gay-bi-me...

None of that, of course, means discrimination is not involved. Frankly, I don't think enough attention is being paid to the problem, if we have these grand plans of ending AIDS by 2030 while 20% of a subpopulation has the disease.

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He's not correct, because that's totally orthogonal to the point being made.

The issue is that when there is active discrimination against men who have sex with men, those men are more likely to contract HIV – for a whole bevy of obvious reasons.

Looking at this from the perspective of HIV spreading fastest in "groups that are more liberal" is obviously missing the whole point.

It is correct that men who have sex with men are far, far more likely to be diagnosed with HIV in developed countries – this is kind of disconnected from the issues being discussed in developing countries, where infection of young girls in particular is far more of a problem.

I tried to read his comment in the most favorable light - the article is focusing on Africa, I read him as trying to make a point about more developed countries. Clearly, as the article mentions, if 60% of new infections are Africa are in women, the infection rate there has little to do with men who have sex with men; there is culture difference. I read him as insinuating that if the West had a different culture, its HIV infection rates might be lower than they are, a dubious but plausible claim which nevertheless is probably not morally acceptable.

I don't think you can ignore the underlying fact of transmission rates being vasty different for each party and based on the type of sex. For example vaginal sex has a 4 in 10,000 chance of transmission for men, and 8 in 10,000 for women, whereas anal sex has 138 in 10,000 odds for the receiver -- worse chances than sharing a needle.

Edit: compounding makes this even worse. Having the same kind of sex 10 times makes the best case odds 16 in 10,000 but the worst case odds become 540 in 10,000.

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/risk/estimates/riskbehaviors.html

How could discrimination against gays be the cause for the spread of HIV? Did some country sign a law that forbids the sale of condoms to gays?

Gays are at higher risk for contracting this disease because they have more sexual partners. The same is true for any person (doesn't matter if heterosexual or homosexual) that has more than average sexual partners.

You know it's called a sexually transmitted disease for a reason, so anyone that has lots and lots of sexual partners has a higher risk.

If you're constantly told that your life is worthless and there's no community support for open, healthy, gay relationships, there's a tendency for more risky behavior.

Where in the West do we have a culture that tells gays that their lives are worthless? Use a condom! It's what every sane (doesn't matter if hetero or homosexual) does instead of constructing strange reason why it is always other peoples fault!

Just because the country (legally) recognizes gay marriage and rights for gays doesn't mean their families have to.

Still common though admittedly less acceptable for families to disown other family members over being homosexual.

Step outside of any major city for a reminder of what the rest of the US is actually like.

And I do agree that this type of shaming and rejection can definitely drive people to engage in reckless/self destructive behaviour.

> How could discrimination against gays be the cause for the spread of HIV?

People are less likely to seek testing, diagnosis or treatment if they will or think they will be at the receiving end of discrimination. Avoiding discrimination that could put your job, living situation or life at stake could also prevent treating a disease that does the same.

> You know it's called a sexually transmitted disease for a reason, so anyone that has lots and lots of sexual partners has a higher risk.

You're right, but there's a reason that certain subpopulations have a higher risk and occurrence rate and it has little to do with number of partners.

Men who have sex with men do report having more sexual partners than heterosexual men [1]; the number of sexual partners is a factor in the rate of HIV infection among gay men.

I think it would be reasonable to speculate the other major contributing factors are (as posted elsewhere) the hugely increased likelihood to transmit HIV during anal sex vice other kinds of sex and discrimination.

[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21884382

What does homosexuality have to do with liberalism?

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