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1. A GAY ASS HISTORY LESSON
Feel like a broken record, but HIV/AIDS slowed way down bc gay men started wearing condoms when having sex.
Prior to AIDS, condoms were only for straight ppl for birth control.
There was no LAW or EXECUTIVE ORDER mandating gay men to use condoms!
Feel like a broken record, but HIV/AIDS slowed way down bc gay men started wearing condoms when having sex.
Prior to AIDS, condoms were only for straight ppl for birth control.
There was no LAW or EXECUTIVE ORDER mandating gay men to use condoms!
2. As @StephenMolldrem often notes, gay men started using condoms and encouraging others to use condoms.
It's one of the great public health victories of our time!
Peer-to-peer behavior change is possible!
It's one of the great public health victories of our time!
Peer-to-peer behavior change is possible!
3. You don't have to CRIMINALIZE every behavior you want to stop—it doesn't work!
If you want to help the public health, screaming "IF YOU DON'T DO THIS I WILL TAKE $ FROM YOU YOU DON'T HAVE OR PUT YOU IN JAIL WHERE YOUR HEALTH WILL BE RUINED AND YOU MIGHT DIE!" doesn't help!
If you want to help the public health, screaming "IF YOU DON'T DO THIS I WILL TAKE $ FROM YOU YOU DON'T HAVE OR PUT YOU IN JAIL WHERE YOUR HEALTH WILL BE RUINED AND YOU MIGHT DIE!" doesn't help!
4. Gay men started using condoms to fuck. Other gay men joined them. More and more used them. HIV rates plummeted from what they could have, even as many gay men still bareback.
Look around you. People are wearing masks! Other ppl are then wearing masks! More will wear masks!
Look around you. People are wearing masks! Other ppl are then wearing masks! More will wear masks!
5. Not everyone will wear a mask. This is OK; not everyone has to wear a mask for there to be substantial benefit in many ppl wearing masks.
What is NOT going to help is putting ppl w/o masks in debt or in jail, where they & others will be more harmed!
What is NOT going to help is putting ppl w/o masks in debt or in jail, where they & others will be more harmed!
6. 100% of ppl are never going to do anything.
This doesn't mean that there isn't benefit in most doing the thing.
This doesn't mean nonconformists (& their social networks) should be put more at harm with threat of arrest and/or fines—neither of which CREATE DETERANCE!
This doesn't mean that there isn't benefit in most doing the thing.
This doesn't mean nonconformists (& their social networks) should be put more at harm with threat of arrest and/or fines—neither of which CREATE DETERANCE!
7. Ppl who read me know I write about HIV criminalization. And guess what? Even THOSE sorry ass laws don't require condoms. They're bad laws, and they also create stigma and shame—and even *those* sorry ass laws don't mandate condom use!
8. Condom use developed bc gay men started using them, and getting other gay men to use them.
Queer affirming health pros educated gay men on why they were necessary in non-punitive ways.
Peer educators (in schools, gay centers & bathhouses) taught & STILL teach such lessons.
Queer affirming health pros educated gay men on why they were necessary in non-punitive ways.
Peer educators (in schools, gay centers & bathhouses) taught & STILL teach such lessons.
9. Something similar is happening with masks!
Ppl are making masks!
Ppl are providing masks to each other!
Ppl are seeing others use masks!
Nonjudgmental ed., peer to peer & ECONOMIC ACCESS will do more than signing an order threatening punishment or death for disobeying.
Ppl are making masks!
Ppl are providing masks to each other!
Ppl are seeing others use masks!
Nonjudgmental ed., peer to peer & ECONOMIC ACCESS will do more than signing an order threatening punishment or death for disobeying.
Among its other violent uses, law can flatten.
Law & executive threat are poor domains for addressing the complexities of health.
Queer sex ed did NOT only address condom use—and condoms are only a partial address of HIV/AIDS.
Masks are only a part of COVID health, too.
Law & executive threat are poor domains for addressing the complexities of health.
Queer sex ed did NOT only address condom use—and condoms are only a partial address of HIV/AIDS.
Masks are only a part of COVID health, too.
Laws threatening ppl for not social distancing or not wearing a mask) threaten to obscure that the the public health is complex, and must be addressed in many complex ways—physically, medically & economically.
These targeted laws will obscure, create shame & do harm.
These targeted laws will obscure, create shame & do harm.
12. It's maddening arguing how criminalization is a bad approach to deter ppl from anything.
If criminalization led to deterrence, why does US punish more than anyone & still have the world's highest incarceration rate?
Shouldn't our prison populations drop over time?
If criminalization led to deterrence, why does US punish more than anyone & still have the world's highest incarceration rate?
Shouldn't our prison populations drop over time?
13. And yet, time after, the only option politicians look to is punishment and violence.
Our carceral madness is a reason why so many ppl are highly at risk right now.
Carcerality is no more going to get masks on faces than it got condoms on penises.
Our carceral madness is a reason why so many ppl are highly at risk right now.
Carcerality is no more going to get masks on faces than it got condoms on penises.
14. I keep thinking: What if we didn't have cops at the ready to threaten/harm ppl (at the Gov's orders) for not wearing masks or being distant?
What if we had legions of social workers? Prepared to hand out masks & guide ppl to safe housing?
Why can't we have these things?
What if we had legions of social workers? Prepared to hand out masks & guide ppl to safe housing?
Why can't we have these things?
15. What has been sad is that harm reduction—the idea that we encourage ppl to seek care which reduces harm, even if it doesn't eliminate it—has been abandoned w lots of liberals, bc they fear COVID could harm THEM.
They zip past harm reduction & go str8 to threat of arrest.
They zip past harm reduction & go str8 to threat of arrest.
16. The principles of harm reduction still apply to COVID!
No one is going to do anything 100%.
Getting ppl to engage in activities which reduce harm to themselves & others is best done thru peer-to-peer education & care, not by threatening arrest if they don't comply 100%.
No one is going to do anything 100%.
Getting ppl to engage in activities which reduce harm to themselves & others is best done thru peer-to-peer education & care, not by threatening arrest if they don't comply 100%.
