Home > Andrew Sullivan’s Reckless Rhetoric
by Wayne Besen
First, I want to say that in some respects I am an Andrew Sullivan fan. At his best, he is an articulate spokesperson and a brilliant writer. On more than one occasion, he has obliterated gay rights opponents on television, helping to advance our cause. As an openly gay man living with HIV, Sullivan has also accomplished the remarkable feat of starting a wildly popular Blog with a sizable conservative following. For this, he deserves nothing but respect and admiration.
Unfortunately, Sullivan has crossed the line of reasonable and responsible writing with his breathtakingly reckless column in the Advocate Magazine where he glamorized HIV and made it seem about as burdensome as a hangover.
"I have never felt better. HIV transformed my life, made me a better and braver writer, prompted me to write the first big book pushing marriage rights, got me to take better care of my health, improved my sex life, and deepened my spirituality," writes Sullivan, in his typically persuasive prose.
Wow, what an advertisement for the bug! Where can I get that HIV? Sullivan makes it sound more like a panacea than a pathogen. The disease suddenly comes across as highly desirable, if not intoxicating - like a blissful combination of Viagra, Spanish Fly, Prozac and Ecstasy all rolled up into one.
If this glamorization of HIV isn’t bad enough, Sullivan sarcastically mocked HIV prevention efforts for using fear to promote safe sex.
"Young negative men need to see more of us keeling over in the streets, or they won’t be scared enough to avoid the disease that may, in the very distant future, kill them off, " Sullivan flippantly wrote. "You know, like any number of other diseases might. They may even stop believing that this is a huge, escalating crisis, threatening to wipe out homosexual life on this planet…But the bottom line is that HIV is fast becoming another diabetes."
I think it is important to concede Sullivan’s main points: 1) It is no longer as scary to catch HIV today, as it was in the early 1990’s. 2) Catching HIV is not necessarily a death sentence for many well-off gay men.
However, Sullivan went overboard where he appears to tacitly endorse unsafe sex. His apparent message: "Hey, AIDS is no big deal. Don’t worry if you get infected, you’ll barely notice." To reinforce his misleading point that HIV carries a limited burden, he quips that he takes only "five pills a day", as if AIDS meds were nothing more than Flinstones vitamins.
While HIV might not be the plague that haunted the gay community in the 1980’s and early 90’s, it is an awful epidemic that still claims too many lives. Sullivan’s column, which begins as thought provoking dissent, quickly devolves into dangerous denial.
Activist Michelangelo Signorile, a long-time nemesis of Sullivan, forcefully responded to the controversial column by asking Sullivan some tough questions.
"Should gay men try as hard as they can to stay negative, including always engaging in protected sex? Unless we warn them against getting HIV by using the fear of becoming infected, what else will be the incentive to stay negative? And why are you so angry, anyway, about people using fear as a way to warn people to play safe - the way we use fear to warn people that obesity will lead to adult onset diabetes or smoking will lead to lung cancer - even if it sometimes isn’t as effective as we’d like it to be?"
As someone who is HIV-negative, it is always a struggle not to get carried away in the heat of the moment and do something regrettable. The GLBT community desperately needs our leaders to reinforce safe-sex messages, not undermine them, as Sullivan has done.
The last thing gay youth need to hear is that it is okay to ignore warnings about the dangers of contracting HIV. We already have the religious right working to kill us by falsely claiming that condoms don’t work. We don’t need Sullivan to help Rev. Jerry Falwell by offering young men one more excuse to keep the condom in the wrapper.
What a shame that a once influential class act is quickly becoming a circus act, whose ridiculous rhetoric on HIV will surely help lead to more infections. Andrew is gifted writer with enormous influence. We expect better from someone who has a platform to do so much good for the GLBT Community.