Quote:
Originally Posted by NakedAl
But the parts of the article that were given here leave me questioning. Are the one thousand people having unprotected sex a random sample of the US population having sex (which are overwhelmingly straight and in relationships that haven't involved the large number of partners I've had)? The sample doesn't represent me very well; most people on this site are outliers. Of course it's true that the population as a whole isn't at risk having unprotected sex (thank god they do, otherwise the birth rate would go to zero). What concerns me is that people who are outliers read this stuff and think that applies to them. There are a lot of health statistics that get very confusing in the hands of the public.
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I looked at the
Atlantic article again and saw a link to the study. When I went that online repository, I could read only the abstract. To see the entire text you have to pay to join the site. Without reading the study, we really don't know much about the sample or the methodology. I would
like to believe that gay men, as a subgroup, are more educated about HIV than the general public, but that ain't necessarily so: It depends on the gay man. That goes even moreso if you consider the group of MSM, based on the activity of men having sex with men rather than the identity of considering oneself gay.
I thought it might help to post a link to
The Stigma Project and also to their Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/thestigmaproject. From their 'About Us' page: "We are a grassroots organization that aims to lower the HIV infection rate and neutralize the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS through education and awareness via social media and advertising. The Stigma Project seeks to create an HIV neutral world, free of judgement and fear by working with both positive and negative individuals from all walks of life, regardless of their gender, sexual orientation, race, or background."
Anyhow, there is outreach to the "outliers" and it comes from many groups with many different messages. The individual still needs to make a choice, or sometimes they choose not to choose or their path somehow gets away from their choice.
Taking a quick glance at their Founders and Board of Directors, I'm making a unjustified snap judgement that this is led largely by younger gay men. Younger, in that I'm 54, gay glancing at the photos and bios (though you never know).
I wish I had the time now to write more about what I think the audience for the
Atlantic article was and about generational differences in perception and behavior toward HIV. This seems to be different not only for those like me who moved to a place where I could be openly gay when I was young (as opposed to those who had a different cultural identity or self-image) but also different for people of different ages and life experience. In fact, I wish I could write instead of doing my regular work.
Oh, well.
All for now. ~ Bob