Gay-related immune deficiency

[holybuckets]

 The origin of AIDS and HIV has puzzled scientists ever since the illness first came to light in the early 1980s. For over twenty years it has been the subject of fierce debate and the cause of countless arguments, with everything from a promiscuous flight attendant to a suspect vaccine programme being blamed. So what is the truth? Just where did AIDS come from?

The first recognised cases of AIDS occurred in the USA in the early 1980s (more about this period can be found on our History of AIDS page). A number of gay men in New York and California suddenly began to develop rare opportunistic infections and cancers that seemed stubbornly resistant to any treatment. At this time, AIDS did not yet have a name, but it quickly became obvious that all the men were suffering from a common syndrome.

The discovery of HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, was made soon after. While some were initially resistant to acknowledge the connection (and indeed some remain so today), there is now clear evidence to prove that HIV causes AIDS. So, in order to find the source of AIDS, it is necessary to look for the origin of HIV, and find out how, when and where HIV first began to cause disease in humans.

http://www.avert.org/origin-aids-hiv.htm

[JeffPT]

What do you mean when you say 'caused by gays' in your poll? 

[William]

I voted "no".
The virus was being spread before it was known.
Unknowingly being a vector for a virus is not the same as being the "cause".

[Quesi]

Bullshit. 

Here is timeline that might clarify things for your.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_AIDS

Your hate-mongering speaks volumes about the sort of person you are. 

[12 Monkeys]

Small pox was that spread by heathens? you sir are a Class A Fuck-tard

[holybuckets]

What do you mean when you say 'caused by gays' in your poll?

I am not making any opinions on this. Please read the 2nd paragraph.

[William]

I am not making any opinions on this.

You're also not making any sense 
Imagine if I asked you to vote in a poll:

"Do you think pink eye is caused by children?"

OR:

"Do you think syphilis is caused by heterosexuals?"

OR (12 Monkeys' point):

"Do you think smallpox is caused by Christian evangelists?"

 

[holybuckets]

I am not making any opinions on this.

You're also not making any sense 
Imagine if I asked you to vote in a poll:

"Do you think pink eye is caused by children?"

OR:

"Do you think syphilis is caused by heterosexuals?"

OR (12monkeys' point):

"Do you think smallpox is caused by Christian evangelists?"

AIDS was first called GRID. Gay Related Immune Deficiency. According to the citation above, GRID, or AIDS was initially discovered in gay men.
You are free to vote however you wish.

[William]

You are free to vote however you wish.

I'm also free to point out that the question is dumb   

[holybuckets]

You are free to vote however you wish.

I'm also free to point out that the question is dumb 

Absolutely you are.

[JeffPT]

What do you mean when you say 'caused by gays' in your poll?

I am not making any opinions on this. Please read the 2nd paragraph.

HIV is most easily passed by gay men because the act of anal sex causes tearing in the anus, which leads to a much more effective bodily transmission. Blood and semen exchange more readily that way.  Far more readily than in heterosexual sex. It can still be spread by heterosexual sex, however. 

None of that has the slightest bit to do with what caused it in the first place. You are confusing the population in which it spread most rapidly with the origin of the condition here. This would be like saying the bubonic plague was caused by people who live close to each other in poor hygienic conditions, when in reality it started with rats, and fleas bit the rats, and then they bit the people.  Living close to someone with it is how it spread after that.

I still don't understand what you mean when you say they caused it.  Are you saying that the act of loving another person of the same sex somehow spawned a deadly virus?  Or that the act of homosexual sex somehow created it? 

[jaimehlers]

What is the point of this poll/question?

[Quesi]

When affluent, urban gay white men[1] started dying of rare opportunistic diseases, it caught the attention of the medical community.  If you read the timeline that I linked, and if you read the rest of the article that you linked, I think you would agree that it seems pretty clear that people who were not affluent, urban gay white men, were dying of AIDS for decades before the first cases were identified. 

Low income people, people of color, people outside of urban centers, or those without good access to healthcare, people in third world countries, isolated cases of some exceptionally rare disease isolated first world communities, none of these cases raised red flags.

1.	being treated in urban centers by some of the best medical professionals in the world

[holybuckets]

What do you mean when you say 'caused by gays' in your poll?

I am not making any opinions on this. Please read the 2nd paragraph.

HIV is most easily passed by gay men because the act of anal sex causes tearing in the anus, which leads to a much more effective bodily transmission. Blood and semen exchange more readily that way.  Far more readily than in heterosexual sex. It can still be spread by heterosexual sex, however. 

None of that has the slightest bit to do with what caused it in the first place. You are confusing the population in which it spread most rapidly with the origin of the condition here. This would be like saying the bubonic plague was caused by people who live close to each other in poor hygienic conditions, when in reality it started with rats, and fleas bit the rats, and then they bit the people.  Living close to someone with it is how it spread after that.

I still don't understand what you mean when you say they caused it.  Are you saying that the act of loving another person of the same sex somehow spawned a deadly virus?  Or that the act of homosexual sex somehow created it?

Jeff, if I am confusing anything, please set the record straight.