From: session@seq.uncwil.edu (Zack C. Sessions)
Subject: Re: Gays in the military
Organization: Univ. of North Carolina @ Wilmington
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 17:46:16 GMT

thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank) writes:

>>>Q. #1  What is one of the most expensive illnesses?   AIDS!
>>>Q. #2  What lifestyle is one (if not the highest) highest risk category for AIDS?  Gays

>Then why is the army kicking out lesbians?

The only lesbians who are getting kicked out are the ones who can no
longer lie about it and are coming out of the closet, and as a result,
being drummed out of the military, some after many years of distinguished
service.

And lesbians as a group are less likely to get AIDS than heterosexuals.

>>Sorry, but your argument fails with the second question. By far, the
>>heterosexual community are now more at risk than gays are. AIDs is
>>spreading in the heterosexual community now much faster than it is
>>through the gay community. 

>This is false.  Gay men are still the largest group of HIV+ and AIDS victims.

You mave misread my point. Yes, CURRENT numbers are more gay men with
AIDS than any other "group". But none of these would be allowed in the
military since all recruits are tested. The original comment inthis
thread was that since gays are higher at risk from contracting aids
then the military is saving potential health care costs. But the numbers
are that most NEW cases of aids are in the heterosexual community.

>That's in raw numbers, not just rate.  Once you count in rate, gay men are
>dozens of times at more risk.  That's just in rate, not in sexual practices.

That doesn't agree with numbers I've seen in the media.

>Once you count in that anal sex is much more likely to cause HIV infection
>than vaginal sex, gay men are hundreds of times at more risk.  That doesn't
>include the fact that women are at least seventeen times less likely to
>transmit HIV during sex than men.  Once you count that in, gay men are at
>thousands of times more risk.

You are skewing the circumstances. Gay men are not the only people who
engage in anal sex. Women are less likely to transmit aids to a man since
there is less likelyhood of getting the fluids absorbed though the urethrea.


>Check the CDC numbers, or the studies in JAMA.

How 'bout quoting some of them. The latest reports I saw indicated that
the number of NEW CASES is higher in the heterosexual community than the
gay community.

>>It is just as likely that a heterosexual
>>sailor gets AIDS from a one night stand as it is for a homosexual
>>sailor to get it.

>Your source for this astonishing assertion?  Or do you assume that the
>heterosexual is sharing needles with an IV-drug user during his one night
>stand?  99% of monogamous men don't contract AIDS from their HIV+
>heterosexual lovers, despite hundreds of repeated contacts, and you're 
>expecting us to believe that a one-night stand in a population with a far 
>lower infection rate is likely to result in AIDS?

I said nothing of UV drug users. And I said nothing of monogomay either.
I don't know if you are a vetern or not, but monogamy is the furtherest
thing from a sailor's mind when he goes on liberty. Couple that to the fact
that gay men are much more conscious of the AIDS situation and are more
likely to use "safe sex" practices.

-- 
Zack Sessions
sessions@seq.uncwil.edu
University of North Carolina at Wilmington (Alumnus)
"Good health is merely the slowest form of dying."
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