Quote of the Day: Sexual Repression Costs Lives

Having grown up Catholic and remained a member of the Catholic Church until a few years before I came out, I am all too aware of the Church hierarchy's total obsession with all things sexual and the manner in which anything other than procreative sex is evil.  Of course, homosexuality and/or same sex physical relations was about the fastest ticket to Hell outside of possibly murder, although their were some clergy who seeming equated the two as the same in heinousness.  Meanwhile, as well all know, priests, bishops and other clergy were sexually molesting children and youth with abandon, knowing that the hierarchy would cover up the crimes and rarely, if ever, report the criminal conduct to police authorities. Yet there remain Catholics who blindly parrot the Church's official condemnation of sexuality while ignoring the fact that from many Popes on down, a vile, worldwide criminal conspiracy was going on.  Candidly, I cannot understand this mindset other than to assume that such right wing Catholics cannot let go of the Church teachings that in many cases made their lives miserable.  To admit they were wrong apparently would be too painful of an admission.  A letter to the editor in the Bucks County Courier-Times has a wonderful come back to such bitter right wing Catholics.  Here are some excerpts:

Older people jaded by their loss of youth and turning that dissatisfaction outward on the world is nothing new. But I don't think I've ever seen it put on display so outlandishly that it makes "All in the Family" look like a documentary.

In a column last month, J.D. Mullane conjured up a whirlwind of excuses to not only defend the Catholic Church from accusations of being "sex-obsessed," but to turn around and blame, well, everyone and everything he possibly could, it seems. To him, our evolution into a much more sex-positive nation is a disaster, and if the once pure holy beacon of Catholic theology on sex is now tarnished, it's because of this rising tide of naughtiness.

Most offensively, he lists Disney's attempt at transgender inclusiveness as an example of what he perceives as the moral degradation of society that's truly to blame for making the Catholic Church seem out of touch. Never mind the shockingly high suicide rate of transgendered people who feel they lack an identity -- 41 percent have attempted it!

It's likely as high as the suicide rate of those who, as children, were sexually assaulted, though that statistic is harder to come by. And while it's generally estimated that child sex abuse rates among Catholic priests are actually comparable to that of the general population, the depravity of it comes from the years -- decades even! -- that it was kept secret, allowing it to happen over and over again to more and more children.

Perhaps if we as a society had been more open to and accepting of the spectrum of human sexuality, instead of hushed by an invisible Victorian code of sexual conduct, these crimes could have been caught years earlier, and thousands of lives could have been saved.

[L]ook to the parts of Africa where the Catholic Church dominates. Its insistence that the use of condoms is wrong is causing preventable deaths from HIV/AIDS to continue to flourish, year after year. From the relative safety of America and western Europe, they preach abstinence instead, implying that they'd rather see whole swaths of the impoverished die from AIDS than compromise on a rule that, as far as I can tell, Jesus wasn't concerned with.

In short, sex positivity is hardly a moral ill; rather, it is sexual repression that costs lives, even if it makes suburban columnists nostalgic for the good old days. The truth is, these good old days were a time before the HIV/AIDS crisis, when LGBT people were free to be beaten and exiled from their communities, when mothers living in poverty were forced to give birth, and when children were being raped by priests by the thousands but were too ashamed to say anything about it.

 As I have said before, the moral bankruptcy of the Catholic hierarchy - including Pope Francis - is complete. These bitter old men in dresses should be the last people anyone should consult or defer to in matters of sexuality or anything else. 

HIV Pandemic Traced Back to 1920's Congo

The Christofascists and falsely named "family values" organizations consistently claim that AIDS/HIV is God's punishment inflicted on gays for their failure to adhere to the Christofascists hate and fear based religious beliefs.  The truth, of course, is something far different and conveniently ignores the reality that in Africa where the highest incidences of HIV/AIDS are among heterosexuals.  Not that the "godly folks" ever let the truth get in the way of their theocratic, hate-filled agenda.  Now, a new research has traced the beginning of the HIV/AIDS pandemic to the 1920's in the Congo.  Reuters has details.  Here are highlights:

Bustling transport networks, migrant labor and changes to the sex trade in early 20th-century Congo created a "perfect storm" that gave rise to an HIV pandemic that has now infected 75 million people worldwide, researchers said on Thursday.

In an analysis of the genetic history of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS, the scientists said the global pandemic almost certainly began its global spread in the 1920s in Kinshasa in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). 

Here, a confluence of factors including urban growth, extensive railway links during Belgian colonial rule and changes in sexual behavior combined to see HIV emerge in Congo's capital and spread across the globe. 


Oliver Pybus, a professor at Oxford University's zoology department who co-led the research, said that until now most studies have taken a piecemeal approach to HIV's genetic history and looked only at certain HIV genomes in particular locations.

"For the first time, we have analyzed all the available evidence using the latest phylogeographic techniques, which enable us to statistically estimate where a virus comes from," he said. "This means we can say with a high degree of certainty where and when the HIV pandemic originated."

United Nations AIDS agency (UNAIDS) data show that more than 35 million people worldwide are currently infected with HIV, and some 1.5 million people died of AIDS-related illness in 2013.

Various strains of HIV are known to have been transmitted from primates and apes to humans at least 13 times in history, but only one of those transmissions - of a strain known as HIV-1 Group M - led to the current human pandemic. 


The team's findings also suggest that along with transport, social changes such as the changing behavior of sex workers and public health initiatives against other diseases that led to the unsafe use of needles may have contributed to turning HIV into a full-blown epidemic.

"We think it is likely that the social changes around the independence in 1960 saw the virus break out from small groups of infected people to infect the wider population and eventually the world," said Faria. 

To date some 40 million people have died of AIDS and the vast majority have been heterosexuals.  So the next time you hear some preacher bellowing from the pulpit about gays and AIDS, ask them to explain what has happened in Africa.   It should also be noted that the use of condoms by both gays and straights can reduce the transmission of HIV.  However, the Roman Catholic Church and some evangelical Christians oppose any form of birth control  as they try to increase the number of members of their cults.  Never mind that opposition to condoms has caused many to die needlessly.

A Pill to Prevent HIV Goes Largely Unused

A piece in the New York Times looks at the failure of an effective HIV preventative pill to gain wide traction in the LGBT community.  The article recites a number of possible reasons but I suspect that perhaps the largest is the cost - roughly $1,000 per month.  Even with decent insurance, the out of pocket cost is beyond the reach of many.  The phenomenon is part and parcel with America's ass backwards approach to health care: skimp on preventative care and then have to face huge costs once severe conditions have developed.   It's a kin to never maintaining one's house and then being shocked when suddenly huge repair costs become unavoidable.  There is also the possible fear by many with job derived health care coverage that use of the preventative may cause one to be stigmatized.  Lastly, some HIV/AIDS organizations have opposed use of the drug fearing that it may encourage risky practices - a mindset akin to the Christofascists' opposition to reality based sex education in favor of abstinence only programs.  Just like unwanted pregnancies, risky behavior will continue, so why not prepare for it?  Here are article highlights:

[A] daily pill that studies show is highly effective in protecting people from infection. 

The very existence of that option represents a startling turn in the too-long history of the AIDS epidemic. Many health experts hoped that the medication — Truvada, a combination of two antiviral drugs that has been used to treat H.I.V. since 2004 — would be exuberantly embraced by H.I.V.-negative gay men. Instead, Truvada has been slow to catch on as an H.I.V. preventive in the 18 months since the strategy’s approval by the Food and Drug Administration. In some quarters, the idea that healthy gay men should take a medication to prevent infection — an approach called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP — has met with hostility or indifference. 

“It’s gotten tons of attention at H.I.V. meetings as a new tool for prevention, and I consider it an important option for the right person,” said Dr. Lisa Capaldini, a primary care doctor here who treats many gay men. “And yet there’s been very little interest among my patients. There’s a fascinating disconnect.”

Many experts hailed Truvada as an opportunity to reduce new infections among high-risk groups like young gay men, people in relationships with H.I.V.-positive partners, and prostitutes. The F.D.A. called for prescriptions to be accompanied by counseling, frequent H.I.V. testing, and continued promotion of safer sex, although research suggests that daily use of the pill alone confers close to full protection. 

For many gay men, and for some public health officials, the new option has brought both hope and confusion. 

“We’ve had several decades of the recommendation to use condoms,” said Dr. Kenneth H. Mayer, a professor of medicine at Harvard University and the medical research director at Fenway Health, a community center in Boston with many lesbian and gay patients. “Now we’re saying, ‘Here’s a pill that might protect you if you don’t use condoms.’ So it’s flying in the face of community norms.”

Certainly, fewer people have tried PrEP than many experts had anticipated. . . . So why haven’t more gay men signed up? 

Some men have reported receiving negative reactions from their health care providers when they brought it up. Use of the drug as a preventive can be stigmatizing among gay men as well: the term “Truvada whore” has been bandied about on some social networks. 

And many simply may not know much about the strategy. 

Potential side effects like kidney damage and a loss of bone density, although rare, are also a concern. And Truvada is expensive: more than $1,000 a month. So far, private and public insurers, including state Medicaid programs, have generally covered the drug for prevention. 

But a generational shift in attitudes toward H.I.V. among gay men may also be playing a role, some experts say. With advances in treatment, many younger men who did not experience the worst years of the epidemic are less fearful of the consequences of infection. Moreover, current medications can lower viral levels in H.I.V.-positive people to the point where the risk of transmission is negligible, further reducing the perceived need for PrEP among H.I.V.-negative partners.

Adherence to the drug regimen is another thorny issue. The major trial that confirmed Truvada as an effective H.I.V. preventive among men who have sex with men, also found that many participants did not take the pill every day, leaving them more vulnerable to infection. 

Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, warned that drug adherence will continue to be a problem, likely leading to more infections and the emergence of drug-resistant H.I.V. strains. “If you don’t take the medication every day and you don’t use condoms, and you’re highly sexually active, you’re going to get infected,” Mr. Weinstein said.

In any event, the protocol for pre-exposure prophylaxis is itself likely to undergo significant changes as findings emerge from current and upcoming research into other formulations of Truvada such as gels or injectables, less frequent dosing regimens, and the use of other medications altogether. 

“People are not lining up, but I’m not pessimistic,” said Dr. Mayer of Fenway Health. “It’s going to take time. It’s really early days.”

Ill Papa Visits Mexico

I noted recently that a new book on the sex abuse scandal surrounding the Legion of Christ, founded in Mexico, by a horrific sexual abuser, was released just in time for Pope Benedict XVI/s arrival. As the sign above indicates, not everyone is pleased to have on of Fr. Marcil's protectors in their country. Here are some more details from Blabbeando:

A number of Mexican LGBT and sexual health advocates gathered yesterday at Mexico City's Glorieta de La Independencia yesterday to extend a less than warm welcome to Pope Benedict XVI.

Chanting "You are a foe to many human rights" and "You protect pedophiles and then act saintly", activists asked the Pope to leave.

Ricardo Baruch, Director of the Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, said that the protest was not meant to be an attack on those who believe in God. Instead, he said it was a direct condemnation of Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic leadership and their attempt to impose the retrograde policies of the Vatican on the nation of Mexico.

Baruch also questioned the use of federal tax funds in support of the three-day visit, the Pope's refusal to meet with victims of pedophilia in the hands of the Mexican Legionaries of Christ and his opposition to reproductive rights for women.

The world is changing even if the Catholic hierarchy refuses to accept modernity. And I agree with the protesters - if the Pope wants to visit places around the world, then the Vatican can pay for all of the costs.

The Vatican is Not Pro-Life

Despite all its lip service about being prolife,Vatican is not pro-life. How many thousands needlessly die because of the false messages put out by the Church?

Vatican Insiders Declare the Pope a 'Disaster'

The caption of this post is the headline of an article in the Daily Telegraph that looks at the apparent concern of some within the Vatican over the idiocy of the Nazi Pope's reign to date. One cannot feel much pity for the Vatican bureaucrats since it's the Church's own warped system that allows senile, utterly out of touch cardinals (who I might add feel an entitlement to treat rank and file Catholics like mindless serfs or worse) select the Pope in the first place. When a system has no accountability and is controlled by a small circle of bitter old men who have never lived in the real world no one should be surprised when disastrous selections are made. The Church leadership is increasingly out of step with modern medical and mental health knowledge not to mention society in general and it is clearly becoming increasingly difficult for rational, thinking Catholics to remain in the Church. Yes, many Catholics in the past have simply ignored much of what the Vatican purports to teach, but this Pope and the reactionary bishops that he and his predecessor have appointed make that approach more and more difficult. I continue to believe that unless the Church adjusts to modern society, it's future in developed nations is bleak, leaving it to become increasingly a third world religion without the monetary resources it once had from western world Catholics. To me the irony is that the ultraconservatives got precisely what they wanted in Benedict XVI and it is now embarrassing the Church as a whole and driving away many rank and file Catholics. Here are a few story highlights:

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The Pope's remarks about condoms, and a recent furore over his lifting of the 20-year excommunication of a British bishop who has questioned the Holocaust, has left him looking isolated and out of touch, prompting calls for a radical shake-up of the way the Holy See delivers its message.

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Another Vatican insider described Pope Benedict's four-year-old papacy as "a disaster", recalling the pontiff's previous inflammatory remarks on Islam and homosexuality. "He's out of touch with the real world," the Italian insider said. "On the condom issue, for example, there are priests and bishops in Africa who accept that condoms are a key part of the fight against Aids, and yet the pope adheres to this very conservative line that they encourage promiscuity. The Vatican is far removed from the reality on the ground."

Many in Africa Reject Pope's Anti-Condom Message

Many have slammed the Nazi Pope Benedict XVI for his delusional statements that condoms increase HIV/AIDS infections and his condemnation of condom distributions in Africa. Fortunately, many within the Catholic Church even in Africa seems to recognize that Benedict XVI is an ignorant, senile old man who is a sick representation of the larger problem of a corrupt and delusional Church hierarchy. Some are even speaking out publicly. As I have said before, I believe what Benedict really wants is rapid growth of Church membership in Africa to help hide the fact that the Church and Vatican authority are in severe decline in educated parts of the world. Thus, the more unwanted pregnancies among African Catholics, the more it helps bolster membership numbers. Sadly, Africa with its often low levels of education and vulnerable populace is still fertile ground for the Church's antiquated and unscientific message. I find Benedict's behavior indeed nearly criminal and it underscores how little the Church leadership cares about the lives of individual Catholics. Here are some highlights from the Washington Post about those opposing Benedict's irresponsible message:

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[S]ince stepping off the papal plane Tuesday, attention has focused on the pope's statements rejecting condoms as a way to stop the spread of HIV in Africa. . . . Luzia Gaspar, a Catholic nurse who trains midwives outside Luanda, prays the pope will reconsider. "It's very dangerous. If we do not counsel people to use condoms we are condemning them to almost certain death," she said.

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This dissident view is held among Catholics throughout Africa, including in the church hierarchy. Some say how the debate is resolved could be the key to controlling AIDS in Africa, and to the continued credibility of the church. To protest the ban on condoms, 14 South African nuns who work with AIDS victims formed Sisters for Justice. And the bishops of southern Africa years ago declared condoms should be used by married couples if one spouse is HIV positive.

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South African Bishop Kevin Dowling, who says he is heartbroken by the sight of dying women with emaciated babies among the victims, says people at risk of spreading HIV "should use a condom in order to prevent the transmission of potential death to another."

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Some Catholic priests in Africa also ignore the church requirement that they take a vow of celibacy. "Priests having affairs is rampant in the church" in South Africa, said Velesiwe Mkwanazi, a former Catholic lay leader who co-founded Women Ordination South Africa and says she knows two priests with children.

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The Rev. Simangaliso Mkhatshwa, a priest who is also a leading member of South Africa's governing African National Congress, said the church needs to have an open discussion about celibacy.

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In Cameroon on Wednesday, Benedict also urged the nation's bishops to defend the traditional African family from the dangers of modernity and secularization. But Mkhatshwa, the South African priest, is more concerned about the pope addressing "training the clergy to minister to the people of today ... to really be getting actively involved in issues of poverty, unemployment, disease, economic and political justice."

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Hopefully, more voices of common sense and enlightenment will flourish and add to those who seek to reject the 12th century mentality that now so heavily prevails throughout the out of touch and corrupt Church hierarchy. Like Christianists in the USA, Benedict helps make the religion a force for evil rather than a force for good.

Washington Post Blasts Pope

As God's Rottweiler continues his tour of parts of Africa spreading idiocy and delivering an anti-condom message with apparently no thought or care whatsoever to the lives he is endangering, the Washington Post got it right and blasted Benedict XVI for his almost criminal behavior. Here are some highlight:
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THE LATE New York senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion but not his own facts." This holds true even for the pope.

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Are condoms foolproof protection against infection by HIV, which causes AIDS? No. Sometimes they break, and sometimes people put them on incorrectly. Still, doctors on the front lines of the fight against the AIDS epidemic established long ago that the use of condoms greatly diminishes the transmission of HIV, the cause of a disease that has no cure. That the pope chose to question the value of condoms in fighting the nearly 28-year-old scourge while heading to the continent whose people are most affected by it is troubling. According to UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, sub-Saharan Africa is the epidemic's center, with 67 percent of the world's 32.9 million people with HIV and with 75 percent of all AIDS deaths. Heterosexual intercourse is the "driving force" of the epidemic.

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The pope's comment was so alarming that a spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry said, "We consider that these statements endanger public health policies and the imperative to protect human life." . . . To halt the march of HIV/AIDS, those who have the infection must be treated. Those who do not have it need all the information and tools possible to remain HIV-negative. The pope's denunciation of condoms is of no help.

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As on Nigerian blogger correctly noted, why does anyone listen to Benedict XVI:

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What does the Pope know about condom? Scratch that! What does the Pope Know about marriage? What does the Pope know about sex? One hundred years from now, the people who will inhabit this earth will read our stories of today and laugh at our stupidity. They will wonder how millions of people with brain cells in their heads chose to listen to a man who never married and never had sex teach them about marriage and sex. They will wonder, “What the hell was wrong with our foreparents?”

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The Pope is irresponsible, many now say in the wake of this new controversy. But I think the Pope’s stance on many social issues is criminal. . . . Since the 80s when AIDS was first diagnosed, 25 million people have died. Many more were saved due to prevention methods like the promotion of condom use. If the Pope will not keep his religion, he should be ready to have the blood of these brainwashed followers on his head.

Pope Says Condoms Cause HIV/AIDS

Further proving that he cares nothing about how many thousands - or should we make that hundreds of thousands - may die if his shortsighted and ignorant statements are followed, God's Rottweiler, the Nazi Pope Benedict XVI, is ranting that condoms should not be used in Africa to stem or at least endeavor to slow the spread of HIV/AIDS - which is a HETEROSEXUAL plague sweeping the continent. Better that countless men, women and children be infected and die rather than face the reality that humans are sexual creatures and WILL go on having sex no matter what the bitter old queens at the Vatican have to say on the matter.

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At times I cannot fathom whether the Vatican's obsession with halting contraception stems from (i) the perceived need to have as many new third world cradle Catholics born as possible to replace the growing stream of Catholics exiting the Church in the developed world or (ii) a simple hatred/jealousy toward those who have normal sex lives, something which is denied the celibate nasty old queens like Benedict XVI. Whatever the cause, in the Vatican's efforts to block measures to stop unsafe sex and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS is nothing less than criminal in my view. Here are some highlights from the London Times on the Nazi Pope's latest misdeeds:

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The Pope courted further controversy on his first trip to Africa today by declaring that condoms were not a solution to the Aids epidemic – but were instead part of the problem. . . . He said the "traditional teaching of the Church" on chastity outside marriage and fidelity within it had proved to be "the only sure way of preventing the spread of HIV and Aids".

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The Pope, who will also visit Angola, is making his first trip as pontiff to Africa, the continent where the Roman Catholic Church is growing fastest.

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Two years ago there was speculation that the Vatican might amend its ban on condoms after Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the former Archbishop of Milan, said that in couples where one partner had HIV/Aids, the use of condoms was "a lesser evil".

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"These incorrect statements about condoms and HIV are dangerous when we are facing a global pandemic which has already killed more than 20 million people, and currently affects at least 42 million." The WHO said that "consistent and correct" condom use reduces the risk of HIV infection by 90 per cent.

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As I have speculated many times, why do people even listen to Benedict XVI and the Vatican when they obviously care nothing for human lives and human suffering?