July 2011 Archives

A recent article in the Connecticut Post ("Southwestern Connecticut's largest daily newspaper") tells the story of the arrest of a naked Massachusetts man at a concert in Connecticut.

The man allegedly spit on the 10-day-old tattoo of the arresting officer. The police claim the man said he had AIDS. The man was charged with assault on a police officer, criminal attempt at assault and criminal mischief.

It's not clear in the article whether the man will face additional punishment because he may have HIV.

In the obligatory explanation about HIV transmission, the article gets it wrong:

HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, can be transmitted from one person to another through saliva or other bodily fluids.

As I read that for the first time, I screamed in my head: "Did I just read that?!" Where the heck was the fact checking for that article? Saliva does not transmit HIV.

Here's what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say about HIV and saliva:

Can HIV be transmitted by being spit on by an HIV-infected person?

No. In some persons living with HIV, the virus has been detected in saliva, but in extremely low quantities. Contact with saliva alone has never been shown to result in transmission of HIV, and there is no documented case of transmission from an HIV-infected person spitting on another person.

As an astute commenter said at the bottom of the article:

HIV is NOT transmitted through saliva. Didn't you take 7th grade health class?

The commenter also linked to an FAQ page from the New York State Department of Health on HIV transmission.

I'm glad the commenter chimed in because it saved me the trouble. However, it doesn't resolve the issue of how this fact was screwed up.

I refuse to point the finger only at the reporter. There is a process to generating news copy and it failed big time.

It is exactly this kind of misinformation that keeps HIV stigma alive and well, especially in laws that unfairly target people with HIV.

(Hat tip to Edwin Bernard from his Twitter feed: @edwinjbernard)


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A Roman Catholic priest in Spain has been separated from his parish after a shirtless photo of him with a 28-year-old seminary student from Cuba has fueled rumors he is gay, according to The Huffington Post.

Andres Garcia Torres, 46, asserts he is heterosexual and is willing to prove it by having church officials measure his anus to verify whether it is dilated.

Although this video from Antena3 is in Spanish, you can get the gist. The woman crying is the mother of the priest. The other people are parishioners who support him.

To add the finishing touch to these sordid details, El Pais reports that church officials have ordered Torres to get an HIV test and get psychiatric treatment.

The ignorance and intolerance from the church and from the priest himself is deep. That said, church officials are within their rights to punish Torres for his alleged homosexuality.

Ordering the priest to get an HIV test reeks of AIDS stigma. When will people cease to automatically equate being gay with being HIV positive?


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Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of TV shows such as Gilligan's Island and The Brady Bunch, died recently. An interesting article in The Advocate raises an AIDS angle to the story.

The actor Robert Reed, who played Mike Brady, the dad on The Brady Bunch, died in 1992. He was HIV positive. However, it is unclear from media reports if he had AIDS or if the virus contributed to his death, which was initially attributed to colon cancer.

On the occasion of Schwartz's death, the rumors regarding the reasons for him not attending Reed's funeral have resurfaced. Schwartz allegedly was conflicted about Reed being gay and feared that knowledge of Reed being HIV positive would harm the franchise.

Two actors from the show try putting the kibosh on those rumors by claiming that the men just didn't get along:

Susan Olsen, who played Cindy Brady and coauthored the book Love to Love You Bradys: The Bizarre Story of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, tells The Advocate, "My understanding is that Sherwood and [son] Lloyd did not attend Bob's funeral because they felt Bob would truly not want them there and it would be in bad taste to attend. I think they were trying to respect Bob's wishes."

Barry Williams, a.k.a. Greg Brady, agrees. "Sherwood Schwartz didn't skip on Robert Reed's funeral because of AIDS and its potential impact on the popularity of The Brady Bunch. He couldn't have cared less that Bob was gay. By the time Bob passed away in 1992 The Brady Bunch was established and popular enough that nothing would get in its way."

It's sad that AIDS stigma is still so strong that it takes so much effort to make the case that AIDS, in this case, is beside the point.


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