The Bitch, the Ignorant, and the Bigots!

As I put this week's column together, today it is World AIDS Day and all around the globe there will be people taking part in special gatherings and candlelit vigils. Others will be fundraising for the various AIDS charities. It is a time to remember, a time to consider, and a time to think. Sadly, thinking is something that people don't seem to do enough of these days.

The results of a survey conducted by pollsters MYVOICE were released today. Alarmingly this survey shows that, out of more than 1,000 interviewed, nearly half of the people were unable to identify common sexual complaints. Almost two-thirds believed Arrabiata (the hot Italian sauce) was a sex infection, and a staggering 43% were completely unable to identify any of the sexual diseases they were asked about. And all this, folks, is twenty-five years after we first learned that anything wrong "down there" may no longer be able to be easily fixed by a jab at the "special" clinic. It is a shameful state of affairs! It is deplorable!

Whilst a seeming vendetta is currently being carried out against smokers at a cost of millions of pounds, and we turn a blind eye to all the death and destruction attributed to alcohol which costs the country billions of pounds annually, killing people and ruining other people's lives, there are those, our sons, daughters, brothers and sisters - all of them belonging to, and loved by, a family somewhere - who will through ignorance this very night put their lives at risk. Tonight many will catch sexual infections - and some may, and most probably will, acquire HIV.

Despite all the good news you may have heard about drugs and what they can do these days, make no mistake about it: HIV leading to AIDS is a death sentence. There is no cure for AIDS, no-one with it has ever reached their expected full life potential, and by its own definition no-one ever will. Even worse news is that the latest strain of HIV that is resistant to many of the drugs, and is more common here in the UK than anywhere else in Europe, can mean that life remaining for anyone with it may be considerably shorter than ever previously supposed.

Every uninformed, ill informed, and ignorant person out there indulging in unsafe sex tonight, and they will be out there in their millions, could be spreading one of the world's most deadly diseases - and yet they are less concerned and less educated about it than we were over two decades ago. We're told 48% of those taking part in this survey said they would be turned off sex by body odour and poor personal hygiene - and that is only to be expected - but not to be expected is finding out that only a mere 4% would be put off by someone's refusal to wear a condom!

You may be asking yourself: What price do these people put on their lives? But you need to remember - as the survey has shown us - these people just don't know the risks. In a time before the Internet, and before multi-media mobile telephones, we were far more successful in educating our people, both old and young, on sexual matters than we are today - and by miles! Some of the trash I've recently seen on the Internet, supposedly put there as sexual education, makes me despair. When the teachers can get it wrong, what hope is there?

The Nanny State tells us where we can smoke, when and where we can drink alcohol, where we can park and not park a vehicle, how we can and cannot drive that vehicle, which school our kids can and cannot attend, when our shops may and may not open, what they may or may not sell us, whether or not you may look after your own children, how high we may build a fence and sometimes even what colour it must be painted. It charges for, licences, and penalises us for just about everything barring the fresh air, and there are so many, many - countless - other ways in which it rules our lives - all of our lives - and yet it won't go into the schools to ram the plain and simple safer sex message, and the absolute need for it, into the minds of our children, every single one of them, for fear of upsetting "the righteous" brigade - usually the religious; the do-gooders. Just where do our priorities lie?

If you are a supporter of Stonewall then you will have to forgive me for reproducing here a part of a letter from Ben Summerskill, the chief executive.

"SOMETIMES the darkest hour comes just before dawn. The last few days have seen a series of hateful and deeply offensive claims about the government's proposed goods and services regulations being made by people claiming to be Christian.

An inflammatory whole page advertisement was purchased in The Times on Tuesday by a group of anonymous individuals calling themselves "Coherent and Cohesive Voice". (It's a name curiously similar to that of Christian Voice, the odd collection of individuals whose campaigning recently resulted in death threats against some BBC staff).

Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham and the Church of England Bishop of Rochester have both broken cover this week, confessing that what they really want is the right to turn lesbian and gay people away from "schools, adoption agencies, welfare programmes and shelters".

The Times advert breached the ninth commandment - that thou shalt not bear false witness - time and again. So it's clear that many of these campaigners against equality don't have many scruples. But the demand from Bishops that they should be entitled to turn gay people away from homelessness shelters and soup kitchens betrays an absence of charity that would make most truly Christian folk weep."

Our government is under threat from the Catholic Church that they will close down all their children's homes should they be forced to adopt the equality policy. They claim that the government is not the right body to decide on peoples' morals - and, I guess, they think they are!

In God's name, who are some of these people who claim to be Christian? We elect our governments and we thereby have a say in and accept their moral standing - we do not elect the Church, its officials, or decide on its morals and teachings. To many the Church has no meaning whatsoever - they have considered it and rejected it - so why should it expect the right to give moral guidance to anyone? I say go ahead - close the children's homes. Perhaps something better will be done for these kids. And considering their past record, maybe there would be many people who would be sleeping sounder knowing that the Catholic Church was no longer in charge of children!

With apologies to Jesus, when it come to some of our do-gooders and "Christians" it has to be said: "God forgive them, for they know not what they do."

See you next week . . .

"The Bitch!" 1/12/06.

Please visit and support: http://www.stonewall.org.uk/

About the Author

"The Bitch!", a weekly UK News Review column, is hosted by the author and columnist Michael Knell. These articles appear on the Blackpool Gay Directory website, but are not specifically gay in content. More information on the author: http://www.michaelknell.com and on the directory: http://www.astabgay.com.