trend in HIV that’s been

around since even before we
knew enough about the virus to
have trends. For more than 25
years, most of the queer communi-
ty has shifted the “blame” for HIV
to groups with diminishing
amounts of power. Through all

I ’ve observed a distressing ‘

_this shifting, though, people living

with HIV haven’t had the luxury
of “passing the buck”. for the
virus. Perhaps it’s time to stop
finger-pointing so we can focus on
making a real difference.

It makes a certain sense that as
a broader community we’d try to
avoid any part of the emotional

 

 

were having gay sex “on the down
low,” contracting HIV, and infect-
ing their wives or girlfriends who

HIV doesn’t care
“aboutthe history

of safer sex, or the
politics ofwho’s able

weight of a virus that has had a
severe impact on several genera-
tions. It’s not absurd to expect that
people have consistently found
scapegoats amongst the madness

I that is the history of the pandemic.

Still, we can’t afford to overlook
even one sliver of the effort to
reduce HIV’s harm in Vermont by
focusing on the hype over
thoughtful contemplation. Why do
we continue to scapegoat people I
who are “more risky” than us?
Why do we judge our own risk to
be less, if we’re having the same
sex, sharing’ the same drugs?
Unfortunately, every moment we
focus on other people’s risks, we
lose focus on our own. I speak
every daylwith people who are
living with HIV and.AIDS, many ‘
of whom “never thought itwould
happen” to them. , ~

The lightning rods for fear of
HIV transmission have evolved
since the early 1980’s, when gay
men were thought to be the sole

people affected by HIV and AIDS. I

Haitians, injection drug users,
hemophiliacs, sex workers, youth,
heterosexual Africans: all have
home the role of the feared or the
vilified. Rarely does the media
focus on the individual and the
choices we do or don’t have the
power to make.

This past year, some African
American men were forced into
this role. These were men who

to scapegoat whom.

did not know of their HIV status
or infidelities. Media coverage
was intense: were all African
American men being unfairly
blamed for transmitting HIV, or

was this a real widespread untold '

risk for their partners?

Similarly, the story of an
unstoppable “supervirus” in New
York City this past February
turned out to be a hollow. specter.
Coverage compared one man’s
boudoirito a swirling cauldron of
viruses, culminating in a strain of _
HIV resistant to drugs and pro-
gressing to severe illness in mere
months. Our scapegoat here was ‘a
single gay man in Manhattan, who
was ‘purported to be using the
intemet and crystal meth to invite
other guys into his dungeon where
sex and HIV were swapped freely
and frequently.

These stories provided easy
opportunities to rationalize that,
for instance, because we’re not
running meth-fueled sex clubs out
of our basements, we’re pretty
safe. Those months of media furor
were months we weren’t talking
about how all of us can reduce our
risks, regardless of our gender,
race, or relationship status.

What we often overlook in
these short-terrn blame blitzes are
crucial connections to the risks all
of us may or may not be taking.‘
So you don’t have a dungeon. Are
you fooling around without a bar-

rier or condom? Do you share
needles? If you are living with
HIV, are you potentially exposing
yourself to other strains of HIV?
Consider the ways in which you
are at risk, as well as the risks
you’re avoiding.

Recently, Vermont CARES has
been more often serving younger
gay men. I can’t speak to why gay
guys in their twenties are becom- A
ing infected these days despite (or
perhaps regardless of) 25 years of
safer sex messages directed
toward them. I asked a sage
friend, who’s been living with
HIV for years, what he thought I
about recent infections in
Vermont. We discussed the stan-
dard theories: that condom-pro-
moting messages are tired, that
safer sex is no longer chic, that
fewer social options increase iso-
lation and depression, or that pro-
tecting yourself loses importance
when the virus is “more treatable.”

Summoning patience and com-
passion, he gently summed up the
outcome. He reminded me that
though barebacking may ‘seem

' more sensual or even practical

than using protection in sex, daily
lifelong drug regimens are expo-
nentially more tiresome than being
safe every time you share needles
or have sex. HIV doesn’t care
about the history of safer sex, or
the politics of who’s able to scape-
goat whom.

It does no good to pass blame
for HIV infection onto any group
or individual. It won’t advance
HIV treatment and care, prevent
the spread of the virus, or advance
social progress or understanding
of HIV and AIDS. It is ultimately
the responsibility of all of us to do
what we can to reduce HIV’s
impact in our small state, and
amongst those we care about: .
including ourselves. V

Peter Jacobsen is the Executive
Director of Vermont CARES, an
AIDS Service Organization based
in Burlington, St. Johnsbury, and
Rutland. He can be reached at
peter@vtcares.org.

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