Hidden Gay Life of Macho HIp Hop Stars

Well, this is one book that will bring a lot of attention... if it doesn't, it should. There are so many black women getting HIV and AIDS now that it's ridiculous! And where is a lot of it coming from? Sex with men; high-risk heterosexual sex. A long time ago, society called it a 'gay men's disease'; even now there are groups (usually fundy Christians) who claim that AIDS is God's way of punishing gays. If that's true, what about all the innocent babies being born with AIDS, whose mothers got it from men? Are those babies being punished for what their father did? Are their mothers being punished for that? Gradually most of society came to see that it was not a gay men's disease, but a 'junkie disease'; it came from all these nasty junkies out here shooting drugs. What about all the people who never shot an illegal drug in their life, but had surgery and got a transfusion, and died of AIDS? What were they being punished for?

Just like with any other of the topics that are responsible for the death of our children, the death of our culture, and the death of our race, this is one that could be a lot less deadly through education, honest and open communication, and a little common sense. Black women need to understand that the man they've loved for 20 years who has been in jail for the last 10 may very well have, voluntarily or involuntarily, been exposed to HIV through homosexual sex. They also need to be aware that the man they've stuck by for 20 years, the father of her children who's been shooting heroin for the last 5, could have been exposed through sharing needles. No matter what they say, no matter how many times they swear it didn't happen, make them get tested, and not just once. This is what I mean by education. He comes out of jail, or out of rehab, and a week after he gets out he gets tested. The test is negative, he says "See baby, I'm clean, I told you I didn't do nothing, don't make me wear no rubber." A year later, she goes for a routine physical, and she's positive. He goes ballistic, swears she's been cheating, etc. etc. (we all know the rest of the story.) All along though, it WAS him; when you get tested the first time, it's not enough to let it go at that. The virus may just not be showing up yet; it's just like when you first get pregnant, it takes a couple of weeks to show up on a pregnancy test. Unfortunately it takes longer with HIV/AIDS; to be safe, get tested every 6 months for 18 months, that's 3 tests. If all those tests are negative, and you're SURE he's not indulged in any high-risk behaviors, then if you allow him to ride bareback you're probably safe. Until that 18 months is over, don't let him do anything without slapping that cap on little jimmy. If you do, you have no one to blame for a positive test but yourself. It's common sense that if there's a possibility he might have something that you need to protect yourself, but somehow it seems like when it comes to sex, all our common sense goes out the window. We've got to close that window girlfriend! We've got to stop letting ourselves be swayed by good looks, smooth talk, and our g-spot. When you're lying in a hospital bed weighing about 90 lbs and wondering who's going to take care of your children, those good looks don't mean diddly. Honesty and open communication....be nice if we could have that, but it just doesn't seem to happen. A man's pride will not let him admit to anyone t hat he got raped, or even worse, (to him) he willingly had homosexual sex when he was locked up. Fear of being laughed at and downgraded will not let him admit that he shared needles when he was sick and him and his partner only had one set of works; that makes him seem weak and desperate, and God forbid any one should see him that way. He's an addict though, what other way is there to see him? Besides, if he can't tell t he truth to the mother of his children, especially when it means her life, something is desperately wrong with this relationship and needs to be fixed, or left alone. There has to be open, honest communication, there has to be education, and there has to be common sense; if we don't get on the ball soon, it's going to be too late. Talk to each other, and talk to your children about sex, HIV/AIDS, and Hepatitis C; talk to them about condoms and birth control. None of us want to see our children having sex when they're still children, but we don't want to see them pregnant or dying of AIDS either.