By Mubarak Dahir
This June marks 25 years since a strange, unexplained new disease began leaving purple lesions on gay men and infecting their lungs with an uncommon pneumonia.
Since the first reports of what would eventually be called AIDS came to light, the government has typically had a woeful response.
The tone was set from the beginning, when then-President Ronald Reagan refused to even say "AIDS" in public until countless thousands had died, and when researchers for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were denied basic research tools, like microscopes, to help them study and better understand what was happening.
So perhaps it comes as no surprise that a new report by the Open Society Institute, a liberal group, slams the current government for its pathetic record on combating AIDS domestically.
But this isn't something to yawn at and brush off as merely more activist yammering against an indifferent, conservative Republican administration.
As the report points out, AIDS policy under the George W. Bush presidency has taken a huge step backwards by putting ideology over science in almost all HIV and AIDS prevention programs.
Under pressure from religious conservatives, the Bush administration has advanced almost exclusively the "abstinence before marriage" motto as the main message for AIDS and HIV prevention.
Despite years of scientific research and mountains of data that prove correct condom use is a highly effective way to prevent the spread of HIV, the government has scoffed at condom safety.
Worse, it has jeopardized money to groups that refuse to play its political game. If you don't push abstinence, you don't get funded. Never mind the science.
By peddling in willful misinformation and denying basic scientific truths, the Bush administration has put at risk the health of thousands of Americans.
As usual, the politicking hurts vulnerable and minority groups most, including the young, minorities and gay men.
According to the report by the Open Society Institute, Bush's evangelical backers have succeeded in convincing conservative Congressmen to pull the purse strings on any scientific research that doesn't toe the party line. All major universities and foundations depend on government grants to fund research projects.
Furthermore, the research environment has become extremely hostile to scientists who are trying to tailor prevention-specific messages to target audiences, such as gay men.
Obviously, the "abstinence until marriage" message rings hollow for gay men on so many levels.
It's ironic that the government says we are not allowed to marry, and then says we are not supposed to consecrate our love until we are married. What kind of message is that sending to gay men?
Besides the obvious one of political wishful thinking – that gay men just shouldn't be having sex – the bigger message is really that the health and well-being of gay men is totally unimportant.
It's a message that in the context of HIV and AIDS can have deadly connotations.
