Why Do So Few Stories Like This Involve Straights?

Especially if homosexuals aren't really that much different than heterosexuals?

Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- New York City doctors have discovered a previously unseen strain of HIV, which appears to be resistant to three of the four types of anti-viral drugs that combat the disease, and progresses from infection to full-blown AIDS in two or three months, the health department said.

``We've identified this strain of HIV that is difficult or impossible to treat and which appears to progress rapidly to AIDS,'' said New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden.

Frieden said the case, diagnosed in a man in his mid-40s who reported multiple male sex partners and unprotected anal sex -- often while using the drug crystal methamphetamine -- was ``extremely concerning and a wake-up call.''

Antonio Urbina, medical director of HIV education and training at St. Vincent's Catholic Medical Center, site one of Manhattan's largest AIDS clinics, said at a news conference that the patient's use of crystal methamphetamine shows that the drug ``continues to play a significant role in facilitating the transmission of HIV.''

The drug reduces peoples' inhibitions and their likelihood of using condoms or other forms of safe sex, he said.

Multiple partners, unprotected anal sex, meth--and by someone in his 40s, when you would expect this sort of irresponsible juvenile behavior would be in the past.

I know that this is going to make me unpopular in some circles, but does anyone besides me find it worrisome that one of the common (although not necessarily majority) expressions of male homosexuality--the guy whose mannerisms are that of an immature child--fits well with this sort of irresponsible behavior? It really struck me when I was in Boston last week how many pairs of men I saw at dinner, or walking together, where one of the men was acting in this stereotyped way that suggests that they emotionally froze somewhere in early adolescence. (Think of the gay character in Airplane! but toned down a good bit.)

For a number of years, when I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, the only spokesmen that the gay community could seem to find for television interviews fit into this offensive stereotype. This is a stereotype that makes homosexual men look bad to the general public--and yet, they continued to use guys suffering from this mannerism.

When I look at the evidence that suggests that there is a causal connection between childhood sexual abuse and adult homosexuality--and I see this bizarre evidence of frozen immaturity, especially after visiting the town where Father Shanley and a number of other priests had been having their way with early adolescents (overwhelmingly males) for decades--well, I don't find this it difficult to see this as an explanation for at least some homosexuality.