Thirty Days To Slow The SpreadWe limited the size of weddings and funerals. Why not Pride parades?
JUNE 7, 2022
JOHN HIRSCHAUER
In the weeks since the first Western monkeypox case was discovered in Britain, international public-health officials have warned of a forthcoming wave of “stigma” and “homophobia” in response to the disease’s disproportionate incidence among men who engage in homosexual sex.
One health advocate told the Washington Post that he was “worried that Pride celebrations could be endangered” by the “overzealous” response of people driven “by prejudice” and “fears of another public-health emergency.” Twitter ran a curated item noting that “medical experts and LGBTQ advocacy groups have expressed concern” about how “irresponsible reporting” on the monkeypox outbreak “could create a new stigma around LGBTQ people.”
As of Monday, there were over 700 recorded global cases of monkeypox. And while it is not a “gay disease,” there are apparent links between engaging in same-sex behavior and transmission of the virus. In the United States, there are 26 monkeypox cases, 16 of the first 17 of which were men who had engaged in homosexual sex. The United Nations reported that the virus has been similarly concentrated around the globe, with cases “mainly, but not exclusively” being found in “men who have sex with men.” There were several apparent “superspreaders” across Europe at gay events. For example, several positive cases were traced to a Pride parade in the Canary Islands, which was attended by more than 80,000 people from across Europe. Most of the 30 cases in a recent outbreak in Spain were tied to a single bathhouse.
Had either of these outbreaks happened at a church service or a Republican rally, the media response may have been different.
Instead, the public-health authorities have endorsed Pride marches. A World Health Organization spokesman said it is “important that people who want to go out and celebrate gay pride, LGBTQ+ pride, to continue to go and plan to do so.”
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Others have called for shutting down gay-sex clubs until the outbreak is under control. A group called the “LGB Alliance” sent a tweet calling for “all commercial sex venues, such as saunas, leather/fetish bars and clubs with dark rooms to be closed for a month.” Twitter removed the tweet for supposedly violating its terms of service. While Twitter eventually restored the tweet, several gay activists denounced the Alliance’s proposal, like Peter Tachtell, who claimed that “closing gay saunas won’t stop the spread of monkeypox. ”
Wouldn’t it help, though?
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Source:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/thirty-days-to-slow-the-spread/
