From: walsh@optilink.COM (Mark Walsh)
Newsgroups: ca.politics,talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: Gay/Lesbian Equal Rights Needed
Date: 12 Dec 92 00:17:28 GMT
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA

From article <1g85b5INNs8a@copland.crhc.uiuc.edu>, by pgr@crhc.uiuc.edu (Paul Ryan):

> No, AIDS is something gay men saved you from.

Dude, you have got to be !@#$ing kidding!
Oh dear Lord, thank you, for I have been saved!

> Are you familiar with the canaries coal miners took into the mines with
> them?  More sensitive to odorless poison gas, they would die before the
> miners, giving the miners a warning and time to escape.

Yep, all of those consenting canaries knowingly risked
all in the face of life threatening danger.

> So, AIDS hits America.  Luckily for you, it hit gay men first.  And during
> all the years it took America to wake up and take notice, gay men were
> bearing the brunt of the epidemic, dropping like flies.  During all the
> years it took to identify the virus and come up with a test, gay men died.

Yes indeed.  Perhaps the bathhouse activity was ill-advised
because of little nasties like gonnarhea, syphilis, hepatitus,
and such, but that was then.  This is now.  We have known for
ten years that such activity is cause for a slow, painful death,
and continuance of such activity results in same for others.

Yet, in the last decade, many people have insisted in carrying
on in such a manner so as to contract and/or spread this disease.
Until such behaviour is significantly changed, or we have some
profound medical discovery, they will continue to drop like flies.

> Do you *really* think AIDS would never have hit America without gay men?
> WRONG.  WRONG.  WRONG.

No, but AIDS devastated gay America first because the modes
of transmission make it communicated easier with "gay sex,"
and because of the larger number of partners that gay people
have.

> It would have hit a few years later.  But it would have hit the blood banks
> first, spreading through hospitals and operations into the straight population,
> then infecting their lovers, spouses and children, all with that nasty
> multi-year incubation period to let it spread.  It would have cut deeper
> into the hemophiliac population, and it would have hit the young straight
> singles crowd like Hurricane Andrew.

Or really?  And where did you pick this up?  Readers Digest?  :-O
No, if it was not communicated through gay contact, it would have
spread, but more slowly because strayts are statistically not as
promiscuous.  It also would have received heightened governmental
and media attention because it would not have been perceived by
fools as just a "gay disease."  Those remaining fools in the
strayt population are those getting it today.

> But did it?  Nope.  Your canary died first, and you got out of the mine 
> in time.  Clayton Cramer, you should get down on your knees and give thanks
> to the gay shock troops that protected your wife and your daughter from AIDS.

Yes Clayton, why if it weren't for those selfless test mules
who willingly exposed themselves to AIDS, you, your wife, your
daughter and I, would probably be consumed with fiery passion
at a bathhouse right now...

> Has anyone in your family ever needed blood?  In an operation?  In childbirth?
> Know why they're not dead now?  Because someone gay died in their place.

My heart bleeds!  I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist the pun.

> Blaming gay men for AIDS is stupid.  It may make you feel better, but it's
> no brighter than hating a dead canary in a coal mine.

And while I have the podium, I would like to extend my thanks
to those who have driven their cars off of cliffs.  If it had
not been for the initiate of these people, and their compassion
for others, why we would never know just what are the great
dangers of driving our cars off of cliffs.

All sarcasm aside:  I feel bad for anybody who is suffering;
self-inflicted or not.  But there is no excuse for behaviour
that puts one at risk of losing one's life.  The majority of
AIDS cases today are people who ignored these risks.  Ten
years ago, many people were just ignorant.  Today, they are
suicidal.  Hey folks, please, be safe.  Wear a bloody helmet!
-- 
Mark Walsh (walsh@optilink) -- UUCP: uunet!optilink!walsh
AOL: BigCookie -- Amateur Radio: KM6XU@WX3K -- USCF: L10861
"What, me worry?" - William M. Gaines, 1922-1992