Petrelis Files

So much for all of the queer citizen's of the People's Republic of San Francisco having progressive or liberal views, especially on AIDS and our brothers tweaking out on meth. This letter is the _only_ one to appear in the BAR this week on the suspected NYC supervirus and it may represent the views of far too many in the local queer community. I won't be surprised when a queer citizen of the republic in which I live calls for reviving William F. Buckley's call to tattoo the buttocks of PWAs and HIV poz men as an effective way of controlling the epidemic. --MPetrelis@aol.com
^^^


Bay Area Reporter
baypaper@aol.com
17 February 2005
Letters (Page 7)



Emerging AIDS Crisis

When the AIDS epidemic started, very smart people in the city of San Francisco, gay and straight, took immediate action. They shut down the bathhouses and promoted safe sex with vigor. The results were remarkable.

After this success many things have changed. For most, AIDS is no longer a death sentence. With treatment and good genes some folks live seemingly forever. Those who witnessed the horrors of the early epidemic are now dead or too old to get out and swing very much. (Sorry the truth hurts me too.)

Most in the scene today only remember seeing Ryan White on TV and wonder if he is still alive. Perhaps most importantly the drug scene has changed too. Methamphetamine has become cheaper and more popular. More people are smoking it, as that is cheaper and more potent. Smoking it also ruins the teeth. Those sore gums are wonderful for exchanging bodily fluids. Oral sex just isn't as safe as it used to be when you have no teeth and bloody gums.

All of these factors have helped the disease pick up speed lately. The new superstrains are a product of the idiotic behavior of the above-mentioned groups. What is really sad is when you look at the economics of their behavior. A ton of money was spent fighting AIDS. A group of idiots decided to act stupid and now AIDS has the potential to get real cheap. With these new strains you will die quickly. There will be no lengthy legislative pleas by bleeding hearts for more money for treatment, because now, thanks to some, there is no treatment. Congratulations, you wasted billions of dollars by doing dope and having unsafe sex. You weren't happy sending the letters of the gay community to Sacramento and Washington, D.C. begging for funding every year.

The smart minds of the gay community are waking up once again as they did at the disease's onset. They are talking about taking direct action against positive people who like to get high and have sex with people without mentioning their deadly secret. The people who do this are murderers, it is crystal clear. Those who behave this way but don't transmit the disease are attempted murderers.

We had a case here in San Francisco where a former health commissioner allegedly knowingly infected his partner. Don't whine to me about needing more money for education, this guy was one of the health educators. What we need is accountability.

Those gay men that knowingly spread the disease now amongst their own community are the worst sort of people. I'm a libertarian at heart. I don't care what adults you have sex with and I don't care how you party as long as you behave and I don't want my kids to pay for you after you tear your body up. At the start of AIDS we went to great lengths to protect the diagnosed people's privacy. Now many are getting death sentences because they use their privacy to infect others. The gay community is now coming to the realization that the black community has come to. We kill way more of each other every day than the ole Klan did in the last 20 years combined.

I call on our legislative leaders, particularly Mark Leno, Bevan Dufty, and Tom Ammiano to take the lead in this. After a few evil people shrivel up in San Quentin after losing their comfy cute lives people will take notice and stop murdering their own so-called community.

John Viletto
San Francisco