Nearly four decades ago, thousands of young healthy gay and bi men suddenly became sick, withered and died. Before doctors and epidemiologists could agree on what the strange illness was, it was called “gay cancer” or Gay Related Immune Deficiency (GRID), later Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), and now we know it’s caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
Even as we began to recognize that HIV could strike people of any sexual orientation, gender, race, or religion; it remained entrenched in the gay community. Thousands of gay and bisexual American men died, and those that didn’t sometimes feared it was a matter of time before they too would – as a college professor of mine once said euphemistically-“become a statistic.”
This year’s theme, “The Conversation About HIV Is Changing: Talk Undetectable. Talk PrEP.” reflects the fact that we have the tools to end the epidemic in the United States, including treatment as prevention (TasP). We now know that if you take your meds and maintain an undetectable viral load you can’t pass HIV sexually to your partners aka Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U). We also have what some have called a miracle drug: Truvada aka PrEP which reduces our risk of acquiring HIV substantially (up to 99 percent) and can even be taken just prior to having sex (“event based dosing”).
HIV has been associated with the gay male community for so long it’s hard to believe we still need to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS among gay men. But we do. Here’s why.