Pandemic: Facing AIDS

[RawNY]

Although this subject has been brought up a few times, both formally and informally, I think it is incumbent upon all of us to revisit it more often.
I see so many pictures of people using condoms for anal sex, but not oral sex. While more erotic and photogenic, it makes NO SENSE!

We also see pictures of street walkers and bar girls in places like Manila and Thailand. While titillating, we never take any time to look behind how they got to where they are. Ad Bob Dylan wrote, "Did you ever stop to see the frowns on the juggles and the clowns as they did their tricks for you?

Last night I saw an installment of the HBO documentary series, "Pandemic: Facing AIDS". It featured a Buddhist monastery-turned-hospice in Thailand, where a former sex worker with AIDS yearns to return to her village and family to die with dignity. She was raped at a young age and forced to leave her rural village because SHE brought shame to her family (that is for another discussion.) She was brought into the world of selling sex out of desperation and the greed and trickery of those who prey on such young women to satisfy the demands of men from all over the world for cheap thrills. She had sex with a few men who knew they were HIV positive and did not use protection or even tell her about it.

I have had a very healthy and satisfying sex life for a long time, including relationships with transgender women (in various stages of transitioning) for over 20 years. If they did not insist on using a condom, I did. If they refused, I left and pitied the next partner. I have never paid for sex except my first adventure. Therefore I have been fortunate enough to choose my partners carefully.

Without getting too preachy, I implore you all to try to watch this series and the next time you have sex, with anyone, GG. TG, etc. think with your head, not your dick. I don't want any more needless and preventable R.I.P.s posted here.

Thanks for letting me vent.

[tubgirl]

**snip**

a few men who knew they were HIV positive and did not use protection or even tell her about it.



a bullet to the head. period. end of story

[RawNY]

Sorry, I felt that I had to bump this one up again after I read a post from some moron who claimed that he hated Brazilian porn cause they wore rubbers.

[lostinasia]

What's the difference between HIV positives intentionally having "unprotected" sex and you smokers who flow that crap in other people's faces ?

SAME THING

[dan_drade]

What's the difference between HIV positives intentionally having "unprotected" sex and you smokers who flow that crap in other people's faces ?

SAME THING
And whats up with all the non-smokers driving around in their cars and flying in airplanes and using coal generated power?
Don't they all know thats just as bad as unprotected sex with an hiv positive person or breathing second hand smoke??
Wassup wit dat.
SAME THING

[biguy4tvtscd]

What's the difference between HIV positives intentionally having "unprotected" sex and you smokers who flow that crap in other people's faces ?

SAME THING

Along those lines:

Apples and Oranges....SAME THING

Puppies and Kittens...SAME THING

Your analogy and common sense...SAME THING

See where I'm going here?

[dan_drade]

What's the difference between HIV positives intentionally having "unprotected" sex and you smokers who flow that crap in other people's faces ?

SAME THING

Along those lines:

Apples and Oranges....SAME THING

Puppies and Kittens...SAME THING

Your analogy and common sense...SAME THING

See where I'm going here?

All good points.

[justatransgirl]

There is no doubt that HIV is a serious risk, especially for those in sex work, and especially for transsexuals.

HOWEVER the risk can be substancially reduced by taking proper precautions. It's when by choice or circumstance we don't make use of protection that it's a big problem.

The risk is often higher for street girls, drug users, and people dealing with depression. But (and this is purely a guess on my part) I believe TS sex workers who take precautions are only at slightly higher risk than GG sex workers.

Speaking for myself, 99% of my sex partners are professional, straight, married and military men. Is there a risk? Absolutely. But with proper precautions I feel my risk of catching the flu or herpes is higher than hiv.

But that does not mean I am belittling the risk. There is substancial risk for any sex worker - that's one reason you pay high rates, we risk our lives for your sexual enjoyment and in return we expect to live well. And so long as it's impossible for transsexuals in most situtations to get high paying jobs, most of us will continue to do what we have to do to support ourselves.

The only way to ensure you won't catch anything is to only have sex with one person, or to do like a neighbor friend of my Mother's who I've known since we were kids did.

He hasn't had sex since the early 1980's and now he's in his 40's and has become a recluse. He stays indoors all day, only coming out after dark - the guy has driven himself crazy. It's going to be sadly funny if he dies of heart failure at 45 from lack of exercise...

Life has risks.

I've done bareback porn. I will continue to do it, because that's what most guys want to watch. HOWEVER - I TAKE EVERY PRECAUTION. I only do it with a partner I know, who has tested before the event.

Anyone acting in the mainstream porn industry has to have a valid blood (not oral) test for hiv every 30 days. The only case I am aware of where a porn star passed hiv to another was several years ago. A guy shot a video in Brazil, then came to LA and did an anal video with a girl and she tested positive afterwards.

Unfortunately a lot of TS porn is shot with untested participants.

Unfortunately a lot of sex workers continue to have unprotected sex. Why not? Their lives suck, if they get hiv they can die and end their misery. Meanwhile they can self medicate with recreational drugs. There are people who feel this way. I have at times in my past. Many of us have. It's a problem.

The solution is jobs, education, civil rights, hope for the future.

Many TS's end up in jail where they are raped by hiv positive inmates. Minor offenses are turned into death sentences by an uncaring government and hatefull bigotted prison systems.

And yet, where is the outrage? Where are the thousands of people on this site? Why are you not standing up together and crying for justice.

Why are not millions of us DEMANDING access to free or low cost rapid HIV tests? If a cheap rapid test was available - and it IS available but they won't release it to the public - everyone could test before sex and overnight we could virtually erradicate hiv transmission via sex contact.

Instead we die silently.

Sigh,
TS Jamie

[qeuqheeg222]

the pandemic is so sad when you see the consequences on a large civilian level.beyond our dynamic here in the first world of hush hushes and nay nays gone wrong..i've seen villages in zimbabwe and zambia where all the people tending the stores.gas stations,hereding the goats were children cuz all the adults were sick or dead..it is really horrible knowin that whole countries have an infection rate of 60 to 70 percent of the adult population...i dont understand how something seemingly so infective could not come into existence before the 1980's or 90's...maybe i'm digging a little to much into consp.theories but i think the polio vaccines were fucked up(not intentionally-they might not have known any better)the early hep-b vaccines were fucked up too...the scientific community does not necessarily want to come clean on this issue cuz it might cast doubt upon their methodologys and the general trust in what they do....

[RawNY]

Jusatatransgirl wrote:

Unfortunately a lot of sex workers continue to have unprotected sex. Why not? Their lives suck, if they get hiv they can die and end their misery. Meanwhile they can self medicate with recreational drugs. There are people who feel this way. I have at times in my past. Many of us have. It's a problem.

I hope you were being sarcastic. That is like the former first lady, Mrs. Bush, saying that the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was not so bad for many of the residents of N.O. becasue they didn't have much to begin with and now they will get new homes (yeah, FEMA Trailors).

BTW, lostinasia, comparing secondhand smoke to HIV is demeaning to those who suffer. Get your ass to a hospice adn look around. Try to be a care giver, not a I dont care giver. Really.

[Vicki Richter]

Are you trying to preach about getting HIV from oral sex? This is interesting.

[RawNY]

Preach?
Hardly, Vicki.
I was so disturbed by the HBO special (did you see it?) that I felt compelled to post my feeling. Whiel I do not post for the hell of it, and therefore am only a Jr. poster, or some shit like that, I haev had wonderful relationships with TG women for over 20 years. Many of their friends escort and do video. Several of them gave into the presure to engage in unsafe sexual practices and they are gone.
You read enough of the posts to know that so many or the people in here complain about the use of condoms in adult films and pics. I refered to one in my last post. I am sure they do they same with their own partners (I highly doubt more than 1 in 10, maybe more, have ever been with a TG woman).
In one of the responses to my initial post someone said that she makes sure that her professional partners are tested once a month. Even this is no guaranty. The virus can lay dormant for a long time and is often missed by conventional blood workups.
I am a fan of yours and hope you are around for a very long time, whether your still making films or not. I am certain you take whatever precautions you can.


PS, when is the nexy Virtual vid comming out?