Hop Off the Down-Low Bandwagon, Please

In a blog entry at Essence magazine, Janelle Harris writes that she has never bought into the whole down-low hype. She says blaming down-low men for the communityโ€™s skyrocketing HIV/AIDS infection rate allows blacks to turn a blind eye to the real problem: promiscuity and unsafe sex. Suggested Reading Ryan Coogler, Cynthia Erivo and More…

In a blog entry at Essence magazine, Janelle Harris writes that she has never bought into the whole down-low hype. She says blaming down-low men for the communityโ€™s skyrocketing HIV/AIDS infection rate allows blacks to turn a blind eye to the real problem: promiscuity and unsafe sex.

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โ€ฆ Weigh the number of times a man pretending to be straight has, wittingly or not, infected his unsuspecting wife or girlfriend with HIV against the number of times a straight man has been out in the world slanging his man parts without a condom on and spreading the disease all around, received by a woman who didnโ€™t have the good sense to insist he strap up (or strap up herself). Or the gal who, still making in-the-heat of the moment sexual decisions based on a crazy belief that she can tell just by looking at a guy or getting all lovey dovey and forgetting to love herself enough to protect her body. Theyโ€™re the far more likely culprits. The down low phenomena has skewed folksโ€™ perception of whatโ€™s feeding this HIV/ AIDS beast. Itโ€™s allowed people to skirt responsibility for what is glaringly true: ainโ€™t no way, no how the small population of men who are living an undercover homosexual lifestyle could be responsible for the out-of-control rate of HIV infection in our community. Nope. There are still folks running around here โ€” on college campuses, at the new club downtown, even now, bless the Lord, in retirement communities, where the HIV rate has skyrocketed โ€” who are thinking with their crotches, not their common sense. We can lull ourselves into a false sense of comfort that down low brothers are the root of our HIV epidemic or even list them as a real problem in our relationships. But itโ€™s an old myth in a tired storyline.

Read Janelle Harris' entire blog entry at Essence.ย 

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