Thanks for the good thoughs. 
Now I get to subject you to a rant. I was in my Intro to Judaism class this evening and the Rabbi kind of got off topic and mentioned the differences in opinions when it comes the concept of tragedies and God's will. For instance, why would a kind and loving god cause the earthquake in Haiti? AIDS was brought up. As a bisexual guy who spent his formative social years in the LGBT community, that's a sensitive subject to me. The individual behind me asked questions that gives me the opinion that he still views AIDS as a gay issue. I resisted going on a rant about the possible origin of the HIV virus. But when the bug bites me to rant, I have trouble resisting, so you guys get to suffer.
I'm going to say this as if I was talking to him.
First, you need to stop thinking of the virus as a "gay" problem. It infects straights just as easily as gays and therefore it is a HUMAN problem. The spread of HIV/AIDS in the gay community was largely due to social issues with the repression and demon-ization of homosexuality that forced it underground.
Second, you have to remember that bacteria and viruses evolve over time, and in fact evolve far faster than more complicated creatures. MURSA was an example that I spoke out loud about. It's a bacterial infection that it's pretty much agreed that it came about due to the over-use of anti-bacterial treatments. The bacteria evolved and became resistant to anything we had because we'd already thrown everything at it. It is more than possible that the HIV/AIDS virus was a similar issue. There is the oft-cited evidence that it came from poor regions in Africa. It is more than possible that a virus happened to evolve from a pre-existing-but-unknown-to-science immuno-suppressant virus in the rural countryside of a remote village. A person could catch this mutant strain through a variety of ways and then transmitted it to others.
It spread among the gay community because homo-sex was practiced in secret due to societal pressure. People met in dark secret places, had anonymous unprotected sex, and then went on about their double-lives, oftentimes infecting their spouses who were ignorant of their husband's secret life.
What is so complicated about that concept? Why do evangelical and ultra-conservatives have such an issue understanding basic logic and reasoning? Granted, even if they accepted the science, they wouldn't accept the blame. Had homosexuality been an open and accepted practice, the spread of HIV/AIDS and many other STDs would probably more equal between the different sexual strata and possibly not nearly as wide-spread as it has gotten. A good portion of that is that their church's money that is sent to Africa is not spent on educating people about the virus properly and is instead focused on indoctrinating them into Christianity via their charity. "Oh, they taught me how to read the bible and they gave me basic food and care, and now their English-American-oddly Caucasian-Jesus is all I know of their helpful civilzation." Now, to be fair, there are plenty of groups over there that do help and even the ones I'm characterizing DO help out and they all mean so well. but..
....Yeah...rant mode faded. I got what I wanted to say done though.
Now I get to subject you to a rant. I was in my Intro to Judaism class this evening and the Rabbi kind of got off topic and mentioned the differences in opinions when it comes the concept of tragedies and God's will. For instance, why would a kind and loving god cause the earthquake in Haiti? AIDS was brought up. As a bisexual guy who spent his formative social years in the LGBT community, that's a sensitive subject to me. The individual behind me asked questions that gives me the opinion that he still views AIDS as a gay issue. I resisted going on a rant about the possible origin of the HIV virus. But when the bug bites me to rant, I have trouble resisting, so you guys get to suffer.
I'm going to say this as if I was talking to him.
First, you need to stop thinking of the virus as a "gay" problem. It infects straights just as easily as gays and therefore it is a HUMAN problem. The spread of HIV/AIDS in the gay community was largely due to social issues with the repression and demon-ization of homosexuality that forced it underground.
Second, you have to remember that bacteria and viruses evolve over time, and in fact evolve far faster than more complicated creatures. MURSA was an example that I spoke out loud about. It's a bacterial infection that it's pretty much agreed that it came about due to the over-use of anti-bacterial treatments. The bacteria evolved and became resistant to anything we had because we'd already thrown everything at it. It is more than possible that the HIV/AIDS virus was a similar issue. There is the oft-cited evidence that it came from poor regions in Africa. It is more than possible that a virus happened to evolve from a pre-existing-but-unknown-to-science immuno-suppressant virus in the rural countryside of a remote village. A person could catch this mutant strain through a variety of ways and then transmitted it to others.
It spread among the gay community because homo-sex was practiced in secret due to societal pressure. People met in dark secret places, had anonymous unprotected sex, and then went on about their double-lives, oftentimes infecting their spouses who were ignorant of their husband's secret life.
What is so complicated about that concept? Why do evangelical and ultra-conservatives have such an issue understanding basic logic and reasoning? Granted, even if they accepted the science, they wouldn't accept the blame. Had homosexuality been an open and accepted practice, the spread of HIV/AIDS and many other STDs would probably more equal between the different sexual strata and possibly not nearly as wide-spread as it has gotten. A good portion of that is that their church's money that is sent to Africa is not spent on educating people about the virus properly and is instead focused on indoctrinating them into Christianity via their charity. "Oh, they taught me how to read the bible and they gave me basic food and care, and now their English-American-oddly Caucasian-Jesus is all I know of their helpful civilzation." Now, to be fair, there are plenty of groups over there that do help and even the ones I'm characterizing DO help out and they all mean so well. but..
....Yeah...rant mode faded. I got what I wanted to say done though.
I pride myself of my lack of stench.
But then no one hits on me, maybe I'm missing the element of my own natural musk