Wrong Questions and Comparisons: Gay Men who are HIV+ Are Not the Same As COVID Anti-Vaxxers

 Recently, a conservative columnist made this audacious comment, wondering what if gay men were treated like "pariahs" during the AIDS crisis the way COVID non-vaccinated people are (Newsweek, 11/18/21)?

Yes, gay men were treated like pariahs during the AIDS crisis.

No, COVID non-vaccinated people are not being treated like pariahs. They are rightly treated as a menace to society at large. COVID can be easily spread in the air by COVID infected people.

In the 1980s, gay men who were HIV+ were never a menace to the common good. They were simply infected.  

On a conservative channel, Newsmax, Prager asked this question: "During the AIDS crisis, can you imagine if gay men and intravenous drug users, who were the vast majority of the people with AIDS, had they been pariahs the way the non-vaccinated are? But it would have been inconceivable. And it should have been inconceivable."

In response, "Twitter user David Lytle wrote, "A reminder that I'm from Kokomo, Indiana—the town that expelled Ryan White from public schools because he was HIV positive, which he contracted through a blood transfusion. Gay men, drug users, and anyone with HIV/AIDS was a pariah."

Here's a link to the article with Prager's comments: https://www.newsweek.com/aids-trends-after-dennis-prager-asks-what-if-gay-men-were-pariahs-like-anti-vaxxers-1647232.

Exactly. Those people who fail to take the current vaccine available to thwart this COVID 19 pandemic are risking not only their own lives, but the lives of those they love, as well as the wider community. This is a national and international public health crisis. Those who refuse to take the vaccine are not "pariahs" but fools, if not a danger to society-at-large. 

Those who are gay and HIV positive (+) or living with AIDS, along with those who used needles, and those who were infected and became HIV+/living with AIDS, like Ryan White, were truly treated like pariahs in the 1980s and 1990s. 

The conservative columnist and TV personality, William F. Buckley, who was revered in the household in which I was raised, suggested that anyone detected to be HIV+/living with AIDS, should be tattooed on the upper forearm and buttock "to prevent the victimization of other homosexuals." Buckley suggested this in both 1986 and 2005.

Along with the tattoos, those who are HIV+/living with AIDS should be "discreetly" discharged from military service. If a person is married and HIV+, that person should be sterilized so no children should be born who are HIV+. Of course, insurance companies should know one's HIV status, and then be free to either carry a person, or let them go from any health insurance plan. 

For more on Buckley's thoughts and comments, go to this link: http://www.back2stonewall.com/2021/03/march-18-1986-william-f-buckley-jr-proposes-tattooing-all-aids-carriers-york-times.html

Let's talk about those who were truly treated as "pariahs" in our society. I would hasten to say people who are in the LGBTQIA+ community, especially of late those who are transgender, are treated as the real "pariahs" in our society, by and large. Next week is Transgender Week of Awareness, Nov. 13-19, 2021. 

It's an ugly history. And my hope is that we don't repeat such foul ideas by remembering our history, and using it as a guide to not repeat such hateful comments and ideas. 

As for Dennis Prager? He is asking the wrong set of questions, and making the wrong kind of comparisons, and should be reprimanded, and then his comments ignored.