Like many readers, Kentucky’s Bruce Watson thinks Duri’s Ian Page certainly ruffled a few feathers with his Soapbox (“Marriage the building block of our community”, NDL, May 15).
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In a perceptive and balanced argument, (Ian Page) included one sentence that created uproar in the chook-house: “ The only new creation from homosexual unions has been a new virus”.
The response was immediate: “what a disgraceful and hateful statement”.
The evolution of HIV has nothing whatsoever to do with homosexuality ... doesn’t anybody at The Leader bother to read before publishing? Also, the odd question from “Jen” – “who do you think you are?”
On May 16, Troy Rowland weighed in with his need “to complain”. He continued: “Not only is this statement factually inaccurate, it plays into the prejudices of those (who) are willing to believe this sort of non-scientific dribble” and “I must admit that I struggle with free speech being used as a cover to peddle misinformation and downright lies” – and so on.
Ian Page replied with a judicious and precise revision to his sentence.
“The sentence should have read: ‘The only new life homosexual unions have propagated, has been a new virus’”. (May 18)
Mercurius Goldstein entered the fray on May 20, insisting HIV “doesn’t know who is gay and who isn’t”, and “spreading such lies about homosexuals and the spread of HIV” causes all sorts of adverse consequences such as “self-harm and suicides” and “The number one propagator of HIV is unsafe sexual practices”.
This says it all, and undermines all the other complaints against Mr Page.
The risk factor is very high; infection can occur if you only engage in one unsafe sexual experience with an infected partner.
Some facts for the record: HIV – human immunodeficiency virus – causes systemic weakness which can lead to immune deficiency syndrome – AIDS.
This allows a variety of infections and cancers to lead to the death of the sufferers. The transmission is mostly caused by unsafe sexual practices, generally between males, with a smaller spread through sharing needles when taking drugs.
AIDS came to prominence in the USA among young men – most homosexual, some bi-sexual, and some who were just playing around. Given our highly inter-connected and mobile community, the problems quickly estab- lished themselves in Australia, and the spread was rapid.
Various public programs were instigated, and a degree of control was achieved.
Recently, the numbers of infected patients has risen alarmingly, mostly among homosexual men (by 32 per cent from 2013 to 2014 in NSW). Depending on which state government figures you use, somewhere between 78 per cent in NSW (2013) and 90 per cent in Victoria are homosexually active men.
HIV/AIDS do not affect all homosexuals and drug takers, but they indicate the scale of the problems spread by the activities. Of the 30,000 HIV sufferers, 2500 are female. The figures are similar for AIDS with 10,700 of whom 597 are female.
Where once we used to worry about the usual sexual diseases, now we also have the threat of rampant viruses, largely spread by men.
At the same time we are expected to accept unrestrained, multifaceted sexual activity, promoted through the media. We are bombarded by images of bearded transvestite singers, drag-queen winners of international singing contests, Mardi Gras, same-sex unions among our celebrities, politicians, and so on.
Human reproduction in Australia is affected by all this. The traditional bases of social values have been undermined to the extent that trust between men and women has been deeply eroded throughout our communities.
If we do not rigorously examine and analyse the current demands in all their aspects we might all suffer in the future.
The biggest victims will be women.
Mr Page’s concern is sound.