04 December 2017

No Gays In Trump's AIDS Speech

No To Gays
U.S. President Donald Trump issued a proclamation last 30 November to commemorate World AIDS Day — and didn’t mention the biggest contributor for the spread of the diseases: the LGBT community.

"Today, on World AIDS Day, we honor those who have lost their lives to AIDS, we celebrate the remarkable progress we have made in combating this disease, and we reaffirm our ongoing commitment to end AIDS as a public health threat," Trump said in the statement, which was signed and released online.

"Since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, more than 76million people around the world have become infected with HIV and 35million have died from AIDS," he added.

"On this day, we pray for all those living with HIV, and those who have lost loved ones to AIDS."

World AIDS Day was founded in 1988 and takes takes place every year on December 1.

Mentioning members of the LGBT community, who are largely affected by the virus, was commonplace during Barack Obama’s days in office — same with former president Bill Clinton. However, it doesn't mean that everyone should follow just because it happened before.

While Trump’s disregard of the LGBT community sparked an expected outrage from special snowflakes, he’s not the first president to do so. President George Bush also left them out completely during both his terms.

Globally, men who have sex with men (sometimes referred to as MSM) are 24 times more likely to be living with HIV than the general population. New diagnoses among this group are increasing in some regions - with a 17 percent rise in Western and Central Europe and a rise of 8 percent in North America between 2010 and 2014.

In 2014, men who have sex with men accounted for 54 percent of new HIV infections in Western Europe, 68 percent in North America and 30 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In Jamaica, one in three men who have sex with men are living with HIV.

The fact that HIV prevalence among men who have sex with men is so high in many countries means that members of this group have an increased chance of being exposed to the virus, due mainly to practicing unsanitary, dirty and unnatural sexual practices.