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Monkey Pox: It’s just the start

We all have had enough of plague, right? Two and a half years later of Covid and its variants our culture and communities are fundamentally changed and as humans we are struggling. In the scope of things, compared to HIV, AIDS, Spanish Flu, we have had it easy if you apply it to a troubled past.

Without sounding like Chicken Little, there seems to be a wash of information predicting it is going to continue for a while longer. Meanwhile there are other things showing up like monkey pox and meningitis! The media is kicking new horrors around and in a way that feels exclusive to certain groups of humans. It is reminiscent of the 80’s and even darker times of history.

When monkey pox first made news in the beginning of May, the reporter linked it to two parties in Europe touted as gay orgies. The World Health Organization sent our a press release that fed the fervor that was only heard by gays. There are two unconfirmed cases still in the area where I live.

Just within recent days there was a meningococcal disease with a focus in Florida at this time, again pointing toward gay/bi-sexual men according to the CDC.

By calling out LGBTQIA (more specifically gay/bi men) this creates a vacuum like AIDS did, because this is not an everyone problem anymore. It is a gay people problem. When I heard the local newscaster read this story on network news, a gay man, I heard the break in his voice as it sounded to me like he was hearing a clear representation of blaming.

Stories like this are concerning. LGBTQIA freedom in the United States has enjoyed a beautiful renaissance, but since #45 was in office there has been a steep decline in those gains. It is more than a self-correcting social flux, where liberal ideas have enjoyed a lot of social muscle under leaders like Obama, Pelosi, Schumer and others. It’s scarier than that.

A friend told me recently that he thinks the tide is changing. The world is getting darker, more desperate, and scarier.

All the queer culture that has been shoved down the throats of conservatives is coming back to bite us in the ass. We absolutely need representation for queer kids and people desperately seeking a fair chance in the world.

Fact is the United States is 50/50 conservatives and liberals which makes every election a trial of wills. Elections are not swept any more without gerrymandering.

We live in a culture now where there is permission for racism, violence against AAPI, gun rights and mass shootings to have a place. It’s a dark turn and it is scary.

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Note: This was written before the supreme court ruling on Roe V. Wade. I feel the two stories are related because they flow in the vein that a dire tide is shifting in the world against social programs, against marginalized communities, and many other successes our communities have enjoyed in recent years.

Image Source: https://futureearth.org/2020/06/12/statement-on-racial-justice/

Posted in Culture.