DON’T LEAVE US ON OUR OWN THIS TIME

For those of us who survived the early days of the HIV/ AIDS crisis, any viral infection that hits the news involving our community has a triggering effect. Of course, what is happening today with the national monkeypox emergency is not comparable to the AIDS crisis of the mid-1980s — when health and human services agencies purposely spread fear, shame and condemnation. What is true, however, is that the consequences of those institutionalized discriminatory policies and deadly practices are still — inevitably — echoing today, four decades later, when being HIV positive can carry a stigma even in our community.

Today, in fact, we know what we know about HIV/AIDS because our community stood up and fought against the silence, the stigma and the violence. We pushed for new research and new Food and Drug Administration protocols, engaged our community with harm reduction practices, became doctors and scientists, and took care of our own. We were at war. Yet we created community, a movement, and we learned about resilience. For those of us who were in the fight, no matter if you were living with AIDS or not, we were all associated — and synonymous — with the virus.

We had nothing to lose. We fought together against everything and everyone.

It is in this context that the first discoveries around the spread of monkeypox in the U.S. have unleashed a reminiscence of the confusion and stigmatizations of those early days of the HIV/AIDS crisis. How? When health officials first talked about gay men, bisexual men and men having sex with men as the “subjects at risk.”

It would have been more useful to talk about practices and actions that can increase certain risks instead of once again stigmatizing “subjects at risk.” That would have focused attention on the action instead of the person — and our sexual orientation and/or gender identity, no matter what we do and who we are. Even when we know that — so far — the majority of gay men are the ones being affected by this virus, we also know we are not the only ones and that monkeypox can be spread to anyone since it is not a sexually transmitted infection.

Failing to inform the public, beyond alerting the Pride crowds, about these risks during a summer season of major events including Padres games, Fourth of July parades and San Diego Comic-Con, contributes to the stigmatization of spaces and suggests that this is just a gay men’s affair and or that gay men only go to Pride events.

We also know that monkeypox is not a new virus and that the delay in the distribution of vaccinations could have been totally prevented. Here we are, upset again, and what we are left with is anger, but also with a lot of work to do to inform people.

We are now called to rally our troops to educate and inform while we also have to defend ourselves from homophobic and transphobic attacks by people who are quick to blame us and restigmatize us. In the meantime, our queer service providers are at the forefront of serving people and answering the numerous calls and inquiries that LGBTQI services like The San Diego LGBT Community Center, San Diego Pride and the North County LGBTQ Resource Center have begun to receive.

We need collaboration and coordination more than ever, but all service providers, not just the queer ones, should do this work. We need the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency to understand that LGBTQI people are not only in Hillcrest but throughout the county and that we need vaccination sites — once they become more available — everywhere and not just in the city of San Diego.

It is a partnership that I believe can be successful if we are allowed to co-lead and direct the messaging — but also if the county and state are open to our community inputs.

Now that we have a state of emergency, we hope our agencies’ effort can be supported right away (not in six months or a year), with human and financial resources.

A lot already has been asked of us, and so far we have tapped into our own resources and generational experience. Our community is here to take care of our own, but we would prefer this time not to be left alone.

We are called to rally our troops to educate and inform while we also defend ourselves from homophobic and transphobic attacks by people who are quick to blame us.

Disposti is the founder and executive director of the North County LGBTQ Resource Center. He lives in Oceanside.