Grantale:

I believe the CDC has many groupings associated with their study of HIV.

One such grouping is African Americans, intraveneous drug users and so on.

I am sure you are familiar with the site: but I will post the link here http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/resources/reports/2002report/pdf/2002SurveillanceReport.pdf

It appears that cases of are increasing for teens and young adults “AIDs incidence increased for the following age groups: 13-14, 15-24…”

The actual numbers indicate a growth of about 300 cases or a 10% increase for this population of HIV/AIDS diagnoses. A small but important goup. There are multiple ways to contact HIV/AIDS, the most common being high risk sexual behaviors.

The lifetime survivability of HIV/AIDS is increasing, however, life expectancy is significantly lowered for those who contract HIV/AIDS. If adolescents are impulsive (they are) and risk-taking (they are) then high risk sexual behavior is likely to have lifetime consequences for them. The exposure rate of an impulsive, risk-oriented adolescent and young adult is of concern, since this group is the most vulnerable.

Protecting them is kind. Your previous post suggested that those who were promiscuous were not your concern. Your anger at me has clarified you position. I think teens and even young men are our concern.

David Blakeslee

If we’re talking about being gay, as such, not.

But as being gay also involves tennis clubs, or not, it’s not so defining if one talks about that “gay lifestyle (c)”

Although, we do — of course — hold membership drives too. Just like the tennis club. Most of the small appliances in the kitchen, and near all of my wood-working tools, have been acquired through our very success in this area.

/looking for a rolling eyes icon.

PS and who on earth mistook you for a desperate housewife? We did warn you not to go whipping up a batch of your famous scones without drawing the curtains first, didn’t we?…

I will clarify the abuse the David didn’t just imply, but laid cause to.

The CDC stats are quite clear that within this current generation an entire slab of men are becomming infected in their early 20’s. This is tragic.

However, David claimed — confusing the period of HIV to AIDS with period of HIV infection to notification – that this meant (older HIV infected) gay men were infecting teenage boys.

That is so far from the truth, but so close to the most vile of anti-gay beliefs, that we will not tolerate it.

We will also not tolerate being told we do not care. We cared, long before you or David did.

As a final thing we will not tolerate — it is, being told what gay “really” is. We need no education on that. We have told you that before. This time we told David. I doubt David could educate us, in any fashion — knowing his educational background — but he may learn a great deal if he was to listen.

We have no desire to temper his anti-gay religious beliefs. They are his own, and he will answer for them. They should, frankly, have no bearing on our lives. But we will not remain silent when David (or anybody as equally ignorant) accuses us — and gay men generally — of being careless, ignorant, or child molestors.

We are none of those. Yet we suffer the consequences of some people assuming that we are.

And so, we speak up. But you know that.