Lee Suckling: Monkeypox is inciting outrage for the gay community

The AIDS-epidemic-era kind of slut shaming that's happening for men who have sex with men is rife on this issue. Photo / Getty Images

OPINION

There's no such thing as a "gay disease", but that's not what the comment sections of popular news websites would have you believe right now.

A good friend of mine is a producer on one of the morning TV shows. He tells me, whenever his network does a story about monkeypox, its socials are flooded with homophobic vitriol.

In fact, the AIDS-epidemic-era kind of slut shaming that's happening for men who have sex with men is rife on this issue.

Forty years ago, gay men were being chastised for their "irresponsible" behaviour; told by many in the conservative heterosexual community (including some of the medical community) that they had brought HIV/AIDS upon themselves for their poor choices.

It took a decade or more for wider society to realise AIDS wasn't a "gay disease"; there is no such thing. It was affecting men, women, and children across the globe.

Here in New Zealand, we have no monkeypox plan and it is queer folks that could be blamed for any widespread outbreaks. This should concern us all, because we're all on high alert for disease and infections nowadays and humans love a scapegoat: someone to point the finger at and blame.

This is made easier when a minority group (say an ethnic or sexual minority) can be brought into people's desire to attribute liability. It happened with AIDS, it happened with Covid, and now it's happening again with monkeypox.

Needless to say, I'm angry. If you read my columns regularly, you'll note that I try to be positive in my contributions. But this issue is really getting my goat.

In a New York magazine article, a queer activist at a public health march was quoted as saying, "In a few months from now, on the front of every magazine will be children with monkeypox on their face. And they'll blame us for this. It is only our anger that will protect us."

Monkeypox is not being well-contained in the US, and with our borders open, I fear it's only a matter of time before we see a proper outbreak here beyond the few isolated cases so far. And it won't just affect the gay community.

According to Johns Hopkins University, "Simply put, monkeypox spreads by close physical contact and anyone can get it. Close physical contact could include sex, but it really does not have to - and that's why monkeypox is not an STI."

Two factors have led to the misconception that monkeypox is an STI. Firstly, you can get monkeypox during sex, just like you can get Covid or the flu during sex.

Those aren't STIs – it's the close contact during sex, not specifically the sexual contact, that causes transmission.

Moreover, monkeypox can present like some STIs in the form of sores (it can look like herpes or syphilis, for example).

I want you to read that again. Monkeypox is not exclusively a sexually transmitted infection. It can be transferred between people with any kind of close contact; including any skin-to-skin and not just genital contact.

It may also be possible to spread through large respiratory droplets, and contact with microscopic skin cells that have been shed by someone infected with it. As anyone can be exposed, everyone should be aware of it.

Why is it being referred to as a "gay disease" then? Misinformation. It's all stigma.

While some of the earliest reported cases of monkeypox came from within gay male communities, "an outbreak could just as easily have occurred in any congregated setting", Johns Hopkins confirms.

"Just because one group had increased exposure risk at one time doesn't mean other groups can't be exposed."

There is already a monkeypox vaccine available, but New Zealand isn't buying it. The Government is staying mum on vaccine procurement (again), as if we've learned nothing in the last two years.

Once again, we have a unique opportunity – brought upon us by geographic distance and time – to get ahead of this viral disease. Will we take the opportunity to be world leaders in the public health space (like we were in 2020), or sit on our hands?

Indeed, monkeypox is generally mild – while people might not be dying from it, that doesn't mean it won't be destructive.

Will you be angry if your child gets monkeypox at school, knowing the Government could have vaccinated the class pre-emptively?

What about if you get it at work, and then have sores and scabs all over your face and body for weeks?

I will be, because I'm angry now. Angry at the stigmatisation of my community, and angry at the warning signs New Zealand at large is deciding not to see.