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- in US Politics
Rightwing media embraces Aids-era homophobia in monkeypox coverage
Rightwing media embraces Aids-era homophobia in monkeypox coverageHealth experts want to talk to men who have sex with men about monkeypox. Stigmatization of gay sex makes that harder The conservative campaign against LGBTQ+ rights has found a new fixation for its hatred: monkeypox. On TV, rightwing commentators openly mock monkeypox victims – the vast majority of whom are men who have sex with men – and blame them for getting the disease. On social media, rightwing users trade memes about how the “cure” to monkeypox is straight marriage while casting doubt on monkeypox vaccines’ efficacy.This aggressive stigmatization of monkeypox – reminiscent of the homophobic response to HIV/Aids in the 1980s – poses a serious challenge to public health advocates and community leaders trying to have honest conversations about the disease with the gay and bisexual men who are most at risk during the current outbreak. Should public messaging highlight the fact that monkeypox is primarily affecting men who have sex with men? And should public health bodies urge gay men to change their sexual practices?The simultaneous threats of homophobia and monkeypox require making a difficult choice about which to tackle first, says the writer and veteran Aids activist Mark S King, a 61-year-old gay man.“I’m about killing the alligator closest to the boat. And right now that means getting information to men who have sex with men about how to avoid this.”Early in the outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) struck a cautious note in its communications about monkeypox, which causes painful lesions, fever, and other symptoms. On 18 May, the agency said that “cases include individuals who self-identify as men who have sex with men” while stressing “anyone, regardless of sexual orientation” could spread the disease. But an international study published on 21 July found 98% of recent Monkeypox cases outside of Africa were found in gay or bisexual men, with transmission suspected to have occurred through sexual activity in 95% of those cases.That’s why King is aligned with an increasing number of US public health officials and advocates who believe the messaging around monkeypox needs to be brutally honest in communicating the risks to the population most affected – even if homophobes are going to pounce on it.Last week, the CDC appointed Dr Demetre Dasklakis, a gay man and renowned Aids activist, as the deputy coordinator of its national monkeypox response. Days later, the agency published guidance for preventing monkeypox through safer sex that includes an illustration of two men in a bed. The article recommended people limit their number of sex partners, avoid anonymous hookups, and “wash your hands, fetish gear, sex toys” after having sex. It also suggested socially distanced or video masturbation as alternatives to sex.Sex-positive public health messages like these have drawn scorn from conservative commentators.“Chastity. Celibacy. Modesty. Disciplined. Not being gross. Keeping your legs closed. All viable options, people,” tweeted the Republican commentator Kathy Barnette in response to the CDC’s guidance.“Still waiting for gay men who are having random sex with strangers during the Monkeypox outbreak to get lectured and scolded by public health authorities the way that the rest of us did for going to grocery stores and restaurants during Covid,” tweeted the Daily Caller’s Matt Walsh.And in late July, Fox News’s Tucker Carlson tweeted a poll declaring that the disease should be renamed “schlong Covid”, tagging the CDC.But King says these rightwing attacks are just a distraction. “We have to ignore that if we are to deliver an effective public message to the community that we care about.”King contracted HIV in 1985 and remembers feeling frustrated over the lack of official acknowledgment of the toll on gay men. “How many years was it until our president said how many people died of Aids, before there was detailed, explicit language on how the virus was transmitted?” he says. “Fast forward to 2022, where we are at least getting all of this great, explicit information out about monkeypox so that gay men can protect themselves. I consider that progress.”But not everyone in the queer community agrees on how to talk about the new outbreak. The prominent rights group Glaad has notably cautioned against framing monkeypox as a disease that primarily affects men who have sex with men in guidance issued to the media. Framing monkeypox as a disease within the gay community will discourage other people from educating themselves on prevention, says DaShawn Usher, the director of communities of color and media at Glaad.“If history has shown us anything, it would show us that a communicable disease like this doesn’t stay within one community,” he said. “Stigma drives fear, and fear then becomes resistance to public health and stopping the spread of the disease.”Usher says the belief that monkeypox only affects some people might also discourage employers from offering accommodations for monkeypox, or prevent workers from disclosing that they have monkeypox for fear of being labeled or outed as queer.There is also disagreement within the queer community about whether and how to discuss changing sexual behavior during the outbreak. Some health authorities’ suggestions that affected communities scale back their sexual activity while the US grapples with vaccine delays can sound uncomfortably similar to conservative attacks on gay culture.Usher says that just telling people to abstain from sex would send the wrong message. “You could still contract monkeypox if you were to kiss someone that had an active case of monkeypox, or if you cuddled with someone without clothes on. I would just encourage people to understand all of the ways that it could be spread.”King says he has received pushback within his community for telling others to consider dialing back their hookups. “I’m getting attacked by people who think that I’m contributing to the stigmatization of gay sex. My response to that is: you’re welcome to go back to whatever kind of sexuality suits you in a few weeks. The vaccines are on the truck. Give it a minute.”‘Like winning the lottery’: Americans struggle to get monkeypox vaccinesRead moreThe activist believes the best way to offer frank public health advice about sex is to remove any moral judgment. “We’ve learned through the last 40 years of HIV that moral judgments only help HIV,” he says. “Moral judgments shame the people who are most at risk, which leads to people going underground, not admitting what their behaviors are, and not wanting to talk about the risks.”That’s not to say there isn’t room to discuss why gay men make the choices they do, King says. “But right now it is a completely worthless conversation when it comes to stopping the spread of monkeypox.”King says it’s a mistake to think that avoiding the realities of monkeypox will reduce homophobic aggression – which has been increasing for many years. The number of anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes reported have risen substantially over the last decade, federal hate crime statistics show. During that period, US state legislatures have passed an unprecedented number of anti-LGBTQ+ measures, with 2021 deemed the “worst year” ever by the Human Rights Campaign. Many US schools have banned LGBTQ+ books, and attacks on queer spaces are on the rise. In recent months, rightwing activists have stoked fears by promoting conspiracy myths that queer-friendly people are “grooming” children for sexual abuse.“Those people tracking down queer men to bash, they have a pocket full of hatred on any number of issues that will lead them to pick up that beer bottle,” King says. “They might have new language to use while they’re bashing us over the head, but they would still be bashing us over the head.”TopicsMonkeypoxLGBTQ+ rightsUS politicsfeaturesReuse this content More
- in Elections
Some Democrats Wonder: Where Is Hochul’s Ground Game?
Gov. Kathy Hochul appears to be cruising to a likely win in next week’s primary, but allies worry that she is not doing enough to excite voters for November.Good morning. It’s Tuesday. We’ll look at Gov. Kathy Hochul’s campaign, with an eye toward November. We’ll also check on what to know now that the global outbreak of monkeypox has reached New York.Mary Altaffer/Associated PressGov. Kathy Hochul appears to be sailing toward a comfortable win in the Democratic primary for governor next week.With an apparently commanding lead, she has followed a Rose Garden strategy against her opponents, Representative Thomas Suozzi of Long Island and Jumaane Williams, the New York City public advocate. She has spent millions of dollars on television commercials and digital ads. But she has mostly stayed above the political fray, avoiding in-person campaign appearances. In fact, most of her appearances this spring — in Black churches or in parades, for instance — have counted as official duties. Her campaign has listed only five events in the last month.Her approach has been so low-key that some elected officials, party leaders and Democratic strategists are worried. They fear that Hochul, a relatively untested candidate from western New York who was not well known downstate before she replaced Andrew Cuomo as governor 10 months ago, has not built the kind of political ground game that would generate enthusiasm among Black and Latino voters and union members in New York City.That, they say, could have implications for the turnout in November — and low turnout, in turn, could endanger Democrats down the ballot. Democratic strategies say that it could hurt Antonio Delgado, the Hudson Valley congressman she chose to be lieutenant governor. He is in a tight contest against Ana Maria Archila and Diana Reyna.Charles Rangel, the longtime dean of Harlem politics, sounded the alarm in a meeting with two of Hochul’s top political aides last month. He asked: Where’s the campaign? No posters had gone up, and no surrogates were working subway stations to get out the vote for the primary.Three major union leaders who are backing Hochul told my colleagues Nicholas Fandos and Jeffery C. Mays that they were perplexed about the relative quiet from Hochul’s team. They said they had not been asked for help to canvass or do other errands her predecessors had routinely sought. One of them said flatly that he had seen no evidence of campaign activity.Tyquana Henderson-Rivers, a senior Hochul adviser, acknowledged that the campaign was taking a “slower build” approach than officials like Rangel might be used to.But it has its reasons, she said, including the pandemic — which has shifted some in-person campaign outreach onto harder-to-see digital platforms — and the calendar. This is the first year in which New York’s primary for governor is being held in June rather than September. The change will lengthen the time between the primary and the general election. Hochul’s team is consciously conserving resources now to prepare for campaigning in late summer and fall.“We hear you,” Henderson-Rivers said, when asked about fellow Democrats’ concerns, before adding that Hochul’s campaign operation would get in gear. “We’re revving,” she said.WeatherPrepare for a chance of showers in the afternoon, with temperatures near the high 70s. At night, the chance of showers continues with temps in the mid-60s.ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKINGIn effect until July 4 (Independence Day).The latest New York newsJefferson Siegel for The New York TimesAn accident downtown: A taxi cab jumped a sidewalk in Manhattan and hit several pedestrians. Three people were taken to the hospital in critical condition.The toll of lower-profile attacks: A Father’s Day shooting in Harlem killed one person and wounded eight others. Over the weekend there were also shootings in Queens, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Vestavia, Ala.Unionizing Starbucks:Jaz Brisack was a Rhodes Scholar who became a Starbucks barista and worked to help unionize the company’s stores in Buffalo.Living in the cityReturn of the happy hour: Companies are struggling to coax employees back to the office, but after-work crowds at some bars are nearing prepandemic levels.Dog insurance: Many insurance companies have long refused coverage or charge more for dogs considered more dangerous, but New York and other states say policies shouldn’t be breed specific.Arts & CultureMan behind the bob: Being Anna Wintour’s hairstylist may sound glamorous, but it’s his art practice that gets Andreas Anastasis talking.Art heist recovery: A librarian and a curator in New Paltz, N.Y., helped the F.B.I. track down 200-year-old paintings that were stolen in 1972.Monkeypox cases are ticking upCDC, via Associated PressMonkeypox, a virus long endemic in parts of Africa, is spreading globally. Some 23 cases have been reported in New York, but health officials believe there are more undetected cases. Most reported cases are among gay or bisexual men or men who have had sex with other men. The city has said that most of the cases so far have been mild, but even mild cases can cause a painful rash that can take two to four weeks to resolve. I asked Sharon Otterman, who covers health care for Metro, to explain.How is it spread? Can it spread through respiratory droplets the way the coronavirus can?The virus is spread primarily by skin-to-skin contact with the sores of someone who is infected.It appears to have been spreading mostly through intimate and sexual contact, though it is not officially considered a sexually transmitted disease. Scientists say it can also spread by contact with sharing objects with an infected person, such as towels or sex toys.It can spread by respiratory droplets, which are created when we speak, sneeze or cough, but that would probably take prolonged close contact. There is also some evidence that it may be able to spread in a limited way via tiny aerosols, like Covid-19, meaning that it may be airborne.But the monkeypox virus in general is much less contagious than Covid-19. It is not thought that you can get it just by breathing the air in a room where an infected person is sitting, for example. So, overall, the risk for most people is low at this point.You write that testing remains rare, which sounds troublingly like the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. How are monkeypox tests handled?Only about 70 public labs in the country can conduct the test for orthopox, the family of viruses to which monkeypox belongs. To get a test, a health care provider has to call the local health department and have a conversation about whether a test is warranted, and right now, health officials in New York will not test everyone who just comes in with a rash.But if an orthopox virus test is positive, the sample then goes to the C.D.C. in Atlanta for final confirmation of monkeypox. The whole process can take several days. To speed the response, any orthopox test that’s positive is presumed to be monkeypox even before the confirmation test.If you text positive for monkeypox, what’s the treatment?Most patients get better on their own, with some supportive care for symptoms, such as to relieve the itching from the pox.What to Know About the Monkeypox VirusCard 1 of 5What is monkeypox? More
