3 ms·

> Mercado pointed to Cullen's claims that "male homosexuals played a critical role in the early spread of HIV in the USA, especially in [San Franscisco, Calif.]

> Mercado pointed to Cullen's claims that "male homosexuals played a critical role in the early spread of HIV in the USA, especially in [San Franscisco, Calif.] and [New York City, N.Y.]" and that "the promiscuity of African women who then gave British sailors HIV...allowed HIV to spread to Europe" as examples. Aren’t these claims true? It seems odd for a medical student to not be familiar with early HIV/AIDS. And to present these as examples of homophobia exposes this person’s lack of knowledge in areas they should be knowledgeable. And to criticize someone with wrong criticisms shows poor judgement. I think this is included to show how some of the complainers are silly and misguided. I’m glad they include specific examples because it’s hard when articles just quote non-qualified sources as saying someone is X-ist.

pyuser583 4y ago
It really matters how it’s presented. But we don’t know those details. All we get are insinuations. If you want to assume horrible things about this professor you now can. As bad as your imagination allows.
- prepend 4y ago
  Good point, the context is important. If I wanted to sho someone was a homophobe, I would provide that context. Since the accuser didn’t do that it’s much more likely that the accuser is stupid than the lecturer is a homophobe. They have a few quotes from the lecturer that talks about this and provides more detail and it seems like it was presented factually. There’s probably some recorded copies as he said he frequently gives that lecture.
treis 4y ago
You don't see the ridiculousness of blaming the spread of HIV to Europe on the promiscuity of African women and not the British sailors who came half way around the world to have sex with them? That said, google returns no hits for either of these statements outside of articles repeating the claim from TFA so I'd be wary of the accuracy of the quote.
- prepend 4y ago
  This is not blaming the spread on anyone. It’s describing how HIV spread. There’s no full knowledge of how it spread from Africa to Europe, the US, and the rest of the world. There are a few accounts of real people, like the referenced sailor that spread. There’s actually a pretty good dramatization from HBO in the 90s called “And the Band Played On.” The lecturer referenced in the article is an HIV virologist researcher.
  - treis 4y ago
    >This is not blaming the spread on anyone Yes it is. Specifically on the promiscuity of the African woman that allowed it to spread to Europe.
    - prepend 4y ago
      That is a factor. One of many. It was important in understanding the origins and how it originally spread. Especially since originally it was considered only a gay disease and knowing that it was spread originally by women to straight sailors is important to know. The promiscuous part was important because it was many partners that allowed HIV to spread. If people were monogamous then it wouldn’t have spread as much. This is not assigning blame specifically. It’s discussing the origin of a disease. The disease very likely would have spread in different ways as it’s hard to know what would have happened. But this vector occurred. Would you rather it not be known and discussed?
      - treis 4y ago
        >This is not assigning blame specifically. It’s discussing the origin of a disease. If you point at a character flaw and say that it allowed to spread a disease that's assigning blame. Not assigning blame would use neutral language and sound something like "British sailors spread HIV to Europe after contracting it from African prostitutes". >Would you rather it not be known and discussed? This is so slimey. Nobody is saying it should not be discussed and you know that.

pyuser583 4y ago

It really matters how it’s presented. But we don’t know those details. All we get are insinuations. If you want to assume horrible things about this professor you now can. As bad as your imagination allows.

prepend 4y ago
Good point, the context is important. If I wanted to sho someone was a homophobe, I would provide that context. Since the accuser didn’t do that it’s much more likely that the accuser is stupid than the lecturer is a homophobe. They have a few quotes from the lecturer that talks about this and provides more detail and it seems like it was presented factually. There’s probably some recorded copies as he said he frequently gives that lecture.

treis 4y ago

You don't see the ridiculousness of blaming the spread of HIV to Europe on the promiscuity of African women and not the British sailors who came half way around the world to have sex with them? That said, google returns no hits for either of these statements outside of articles repeating the claim from TFA so I'd be wary of the accuracy of the quote.

prepend 4y ago
This is not blaming the spread on anyone. It’s describing how HIV spread. There’s no full knowledge of how it spread from Africa to Europe, the US, and the rest of the world. There are a few accounts of real people, like the referenced sailor that spread. There’s actually a pretty good dramatization from HBO in the 90s called “And the Band Played On.” The lecturer referenced in the article is an HIV virologist researcher.
- treis 4y ago
  >This is not blaming the spread on anyone Yes it is. Specifically on the promiscuity of the African woman that allowed it to spread to Europe.
  - prepend 4y ago
    That is a factor. One of many. It was important in understanding the origins and how it originally spread. Especially since originally it was considered only a gay disease and knowing that it was spread originally by women to straight sailors is important to know. The promiscuous part was important because it was many partners that allowed HIV to spread. If people were monogamous then it wouldn’t have spread as much. This is not assigning blame specifically. It’s discussing the origin of a disease. The disease very likely would have spread in different ways as it’s hard to know what would have happened. But this vector occurred. Would you rather it not be known and discussed?
    - treis 4y ago
      >This is not assigning blame specifically. It’s discussing the origin of a disease. If you point at a character flaw and say that it allowed to spread a disease that's assigning blame. Not assigning blame would use neutral language and sound something like "British sailors spread HIV to Europe after contracting it from African prostitutes". >Would you rather it not be known and discussed? This is so slimey. Nobody is saying it should not be discussed and you know that.