Dec 1 is World AIDS Day, one of the key days we recognize that HIV is still an issue around the world, and here at home. This year, Bohemian Rhapsody reminded us that HIV and AIDS took down Freddy Mercury through his miserablist homosexual lifestyle in the 1980s.
According to the UN, there were approximately 1.8m new infections worldwide in 2017, with well over half of the new infections occurring in Africa. To contrast, the US had only ~35k new infections in 2015, or less than 2%.
In the US, black gay/bi men were the most affected, making up nearly 1/3 new cases (10k) in 2016. This was followed by Hispanic men and White men (7.5k each). For some reason, Asian men were left out of the statistics I’ve found. Previous docs I’ve seen have pointed to economic disparity being one of the key elements in the new infections. Because so much HIV/AIDS awareness was created by middle-class gay white dudes, HIV/AIDS became an infection of middle-class gay white dudes.
In the past decade, a new tool in the fight against HIV has entered the arena: Truvada. Truvada as PrEP is a new drug that gay people are expected to take every day for the rest of their lives. Like birth control for straight women, PrEP is intended to allow for condomless sex without spawning your own infection. They say Truvada is over 90% effective in preventing HIV (though it does nothing for any other infection).
I present The PrEP Project as a shining example of how fun propaganda for safe sex can be (loaded with lots of muscle-y gay men having sex), but this comes with a lot of caveats. The PrEP Project is presented from a coastal elitist middle-class experience with tastefully decorated bedrooms in expensive apartments. PrEP is an expensive lifetime drug with some funds for low-income gay/bi men to gain access to it. Though the main speaker is a white German gay leatherman who speaks to a wealthier audience, it is the young urban male who needs the message most.
There are other hiccups with The PrEP Project – chief among them condom negativity – but that’s propo for you. As with any docuganda, The PrEP Project should not be considered definitive nor complete. Consider this a stepping stone in education, and do your research.
It’s world AIDS Day, and I’m happy to present a new video regarding a new tool in the fight against HIV.
