Opinion | Gay men should change their sexual behavior to fight monkeypox

“If this article doesn’t scare you, we’re really in trouble,” Kramer wrote. did. But he also accused gay men of resisting calls to change their sexual behavior to prevent the spread of AIDS.

Today, in the face of the monkeypox epidemic, gay and bisexual men, almost everything 9,492 U.S. diagnoses If occurs, stand at a similar intersection. The virus, which is overwhelmingly transmitted through sexual contact between men, is causing great suffering.And now, public health leaders Firmly support For gay men, they have not yet been able to provide timely prevention and treatment and are often fumbling for messages.

As in the AIDS crisis, gay men cannot wait for government. We need to change our sexual behavior now. We must do this as an act of empowerment to protect ourselves.

Until monkeypox is over, it can and should mean cutting back on partners, skipping sex parties, practicing monogamy, and even abstinence.

Gay men have a great history of coming up with homemade public health solutions like this.In the early 1980s, gay activists launched safer sex exercise It faced the (often controversial) violent release of the past decade after Stonewall. HIV infection decreased among men.

In more recent decades, the fatigue of safer sex and the arrival of effective sex HIV treatment and the HIV prophylaxis, PrEPsent gay men in overalls shift back high risk sexual intercourseThe rise of dating apps has further fueled a renaissance of sexual liberation among many homosexuals. Homosexuals have been reeling since monkeypox suddenly reconnected sex with virus-related fears.

A gay man who has been seeking answers from his government on how to deal with this terrifying new reality has met with public health agencies. looked good More fearful of the response to the monkeypox prevention message than the virus itself. hesitated away clear statement about how the public can best protect themselves.Importantly, they often fail to communicate new scientific theory If you are a man avoid anal sex – Alternatively, you can use a condom during intercourse – at the very least, it may limit some of the most devastating monkeypox symptoms. specifically proctitis.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials, including Demetre Dascalakis, the White House’s new lieutenant for monkeypox, frequently downplay the central role that sex between men plays in the transmission of monkeypox, and through other means The agency cannot even use the words “gay” or “male” for monkeypox. safe sex material.

This resistance is driven by a deep-rooted belief that telling gay men to change their sexual practices is inherently homophobic or stigmatizing. Given the very human reluctance to be told what to do in personal matters, especially within communities with a history of criminalizing sex life, such demands can backfire. I admit that there is, I also admit that Anti-LGBTQ Policy and impression (include monkeypox attack) It is risingand that parts of the country still use homosexual sexual norms to justify discrimination.

But this line of thinking also patronizes gay men as perennial adolescents determined to defy the whiff of paternalism, regardless of the cost to themselves and their communities at large.

just like us gays worth knowing With the disproportionate number of monkeypox cases at the start of this outbreak, you now deserve the best advice from the government on how to protect yourself. I can’t stay there.

Encouragingly, many gay Americans are already taking action.Some have published in the footsteps of AIDS activists Sexual Harm Reduction GuideColorful infographics about safer sex are circulating on Instagram.When anecdotal evidence many gay men actually already changed Sexual activity to reduce the risk of contracting this virus.

More encouraging evidence of the possibility has come from Europe.the expert is theorized Changes in sexual behavior may be part of UK’s monkeypox curve flattenedIf we do what it takes today, it may soon become our reality.

If you’re a mean Kramer Was alive I’m sure he’ll raise his fist and demand more from gay men when he sees this crisis. He does so because he held gay compatriots in the highest regard and knew what we could do.

As he wrote at the end of the New York native, “Gay men are the strongest, toughest people I know.”