The CDC has appealed to gay and bisexual men to be on the lookout for monkeybox. To some, that sounds like dangerous stigmatization.
AdvertisementWhen this link became clear, health officials responded swiftly. On Monday, John Brooks, head of the Epidemiology Research Team in the CDC’s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, made an explicit appeal to gay and bisexual men in a news briefing. On Tuesday, the gay dating app Grindr, in partnership with local health agencies, displayed a
to users across Europe; Brooks suggested in the press briefing that similar warnings may soon be coming to U.S. users.There’s an obvious sense in this approach: If an infectious disease is disproportionately present in a particular community, then reaching out directly to that community may be the most effective way to contain its spread. But some experts worry that linking monkeypox with gay and bisexual men risks repeating the mistakes of the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
First, the facts: There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that monkeypox is spread specifically through sex, or through gay sex in particular. Itspread through skin-to-skin contact, and sex—gay, straight, or otherwise—tends to involve quite a bit of skin-to-skin contact.
But the statistical association between monkeypox and gay and bisexual men has become a focus—and now that it has, Valdiserri says he does does worry about the risk of compounding stigmas. Infectious disease and sex, and sexually transmitted diseases in particular, are already highly stigmatized.
Another is that sexual behaviors could become the focus in attributing blame for monkeypox. That blame can be dangerous when directed toward a marginalized group—as has been the case for Asian Americans during the COVID pandemic—and it can cover up other roots of disease spread, like global inequality. “We have to be very careful not to to stigmatize sexual behavior precisely because that deters us from understanding that structural violence is at play,” Cheng says.
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