<p>Look at the time of my post, we cross posted. You quoted an American site and rocket was referring to the world. I just didn’t see that you posted at the same time.</p>
<p>I hope we didn’t just cross post again… LOL</p>
<p>And no, I disagree. I think America has done plenty. There are commercials to get tested, free condoms everywhere, free testing and counseling within easy reach. There are many people that go to at-risk communities and give out free help. The problem is that people don’t take the initiative to get help. </p>
<p>The problem is that many gay males engage in other high risk behavior. Many turn to drug use because they are uncomfortable with themselves or for other reasons related to that. However, the rate of male-male transmition has fallen quite dramatically since the 1990s and the rate of African Americans becoming infected with HIV is sharply on the rise.</p>
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<p>That doesn’t make any sense. At worst, you could claim that gay people in the US (but not in the rest of the world) were really “deviant” back in the 90’s, are now as “deviant” as black people, and becoming less “deviant” every year. Would a gay person become barely deviant at all if they moved to Sweden, where the infection rate is very low?</p>
<p>In reality, there are are a lot of factors that have contributed to the spread of HIV among gay people. Most obviously, the first people to have it in the US were gay, and it therefore initially spread to other gay people (because gay people don’t have sex with straight people very often).</p>
<p>This policy is stupid. We need all the blood donations we can get. If they care so much about HIV getting into the supply, why not ask straight people how many partners they have had? Why not ask everybody if their sexual activity has been safe? They don’t, yet aren’t these risk factors for HIV? Would adding these two questions to the pre-screening be so hard, especially if it made the blood supply safer?</p>
<p>All that should matter is that you wear a condom every time, or else are in a monogamous relationship with someone who does not have HIV. That reduces your chance of contracting the disease a lot, regardless of what kind of sex you’re having.</p>