(LifeSiteNews) – A homosexual professor at Gettysburg College wants more warnings to homosexual men about their heightened risk for contracting monkeypox from close contact and sexual activity, while refusing to call for a total shutdown of LGBT sexual meeting places where monkeypox could spread.
Jim Downs is a historian of infectious disease and is a “gay man” in his own words. He wrote an article recently in The Atlantic where he says more should be done to discourage other homosexual men from having sexual relations due to the risk of monkeypox.
“I worry that public-health leaders are not doing enough to directly alert men who have sex with men about monkeypox,” Downs wrote on May 28. “Gay men are not the only people at risk, but they do need to know that, right now, the condition appears to be spreading most actively within their community.”
He said he supports the uneasiness of public health officials who do not want to be seen as “homophobic” but “health agencies are putting gay men at risk unless they prioritize them for interventions such as public-awareness campaigns, vaccines, and tests.”
He said public health groups should also reach out to social media apps that cater to homosexuals and encourage them to spread information about the dangers of contracting the disease via homosexual sex acts or large gatherings.
“Therefore, public-health agencies should also press gay social-media apps and other online platforms to tell their users that men who have sex with men have been disproportionately infected by the virus,” he wrote.
“[M[onkeypox doesn’t require sexual contact but is prone to spread in situations where people with exposed skin are together in close quarters,” he wrote.
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“It does seek opportunities to spread—and some queer spaces, particularly where people meet for sex, have created the conditions that allow that to happen,” Downs wrote.
“Although I am not suggesting that governments impose restrictions on queer spaces, health agencies ought to tell gay men that monkeypox may indeed be spreading sexually,” he wrote.
However, despite the increased risk, the homosexual historian does not want to see a shutdown of common LGBT sexual and contact meeting places, but instead wants these places, such as “bathhouses, clubs, and dance parties” to “be recognized as potential promoters of sexual health.”