To claim that illness is deserved is to abandon compassion and to weaponize theology in place of understanding.
It is no coincidence that with the rise in reported HIV cases, conveniently timed during Pride Month, some voices of religious bigotry have crawled out and hastily used this moment to justify their religiously motivated homophobia and so-called “proof” of their dogma that homosexuality is a sin. However, this is not a reflection of truth, but of a worldview held captive by dogma. It mistakes coincidence for causality, and tragedy for confirmation. This shows how a complex medical and social phenomenon like HIV is flattened into a symbol of divine wrath and less of a virus – a holy backlash against queerness, as if we’re living in some so-called modern-day Sodom. This narrative is not just ignorant and intellectually lazy, it is a dangerous myth that is ethically bankrupt; it hijacks a public health issue to enable prejudice and discrimination based on gender. To claim that illness is deserved is to abandon compassion and to weaponize theology in place of understanding. It is a failure of both reason and moral accountability.
My goal is to dismantle the harmful misconceptions by shedding light on what HIV actually is: a virus, not a verdict. And despite what some sermons claim, facts do not bow to theology. Apparently, it’s time we admit that common sense is not so common after all especially when it is clouded by hate.
First, one cannot acquire HIV from gay sex alone or even straight sex. It is not an essential aspect of sex nor a necessary result of it. Take note, HIV is a virus originating from West Central Africa due to people being in contact with the blood or eating the meat of apes that contained the SIV or Simian Immunodeficiency Virus. Since it is a virus, transmission cannot occur without a carrier infecting a non-carrier. One only acquires HIV from unprotected sex with someone who already has the virus. It cannot be acquired from unprotected sex between two people regardless of gender who does not have the virus/tested negative.
The reason why safe sex must be practiced regardless of gender is because people are never sure of the status of their partner especially if it’s a result of a hookup. For couples, they never know whether their partner will not cheat with someone who might have HIV. For hookups, they never know for sure whether their partner is telling the truth or lying about their status. This is why it’s important for couples to stay faithful to their partners.
[J]ust because homosexual men are the more vulnerable group for HIV does not mean that gay sex causes nor equates to HIV.
And before you get me started about how MSM (men-who-have-sex-with-men) have the higher amount of people with HIV, that is because 1) hookup culture is more prevalent among gay men, 1.1) unprotected sex during hookups without being certain of their partner’s status, 1.2) infected people who continue with hookups regardless if they are unaware or aware of their status and 2) the risk of transmission via anal sex is higher compared to vaginal sex since the rectum’s lining is thinner than the vagina. Let us deconstruct this false equivalence fallacy – just because homosexual men are the more vulnerable group for HIV does not mean that gay sex causes nor equates to HIV. This is also not mentioning the fact that many people acquire HIV from being raped by an infected person.
Blame the existence of the virus, the unprotected unsafe hookup culture, and the people ‘intentionally’ spreading the virus – never the LGBTQ+ community and not the infected victims. HIV chooses no gender; unprotected sex with persons with HIV (whether you’re aware of their status or not), will guarantee acquisition of the virus.
Finally, before they even call HIV as a death sentence by God himself against queers, HIV is no longer a life-threating disease if diagnosed early and one undergoes Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART). Just as how effective this treatment is? All thanks to science, we now have a “functional cure” – what ART does is deactivate the virus to the point that it no longer has any effect upon the infected. One, infected people taking ART can live normal lives free from the effects of the virus which means they would die of other causes, not HIV. Two, the levels of the virus in the body becomes extremely low to the point that they cannot transmit the virus to anyone else with unprotected sex and become undetectable through testing – though, they still cannot donate blood. And, thanks to volunteer organizations in the country, ART is free. However, while deactivation does not mean deletion, we are still yet to develop a sterilizing cure that eliminates the virus from the body.
Currently, only seven people have officially been cured of HIV – as in, they no longer need to take ART for HIV has been deleted from their body. That’s only the beginning of hope about the glory of what remains undiscovered by science – a prologue to a future still unfolding. With the advent of technologies like CRISPR, we are on the threshold of something once thought impossible: a world where HIV is permanently cured, not just managed. That is where faith in humanity leads contrary to how faith in a religious dogma leads us to nowhere but hate. One form of faith builds hospitals and cures disease; the other builds walls of shame around those who suffer.
Instead of condemning people with shame, why not extend compassion to those in need and actually do your part by educating safe sexual practices to prevent its transmission? Before the self-righteous preach on abstinence and all that virtue signaling that makes them ‘holier’ than everyone else, they must keep in mind that their beliefs only prohibit and apply to themselves, not on people who do not share theior beliefs. In truth, some of those who share their beliefs could not even obey their moral codes; the reality is that people are just imperfect. As Charles Mills pointed out, if your moral theory requires people to possess moral superpowers when they actually do not have those powers, then your theory is useless. In relation to religious people, has their insistence on the ideal of abstinence worked in that area? Clearly not. To the believers, stop pretending that one can control people’s minds and actions simply by preaching to them – if people are determined to commit an act you call a sin, there is nothing you can do about it. All you could do is protect them from its unnecessary consequences.
Even if we momentarily accept the logic of believers who speak in terms of ‘sin,’ wouldn’t it make more sense to say that if people are going to ‘sin,’ they must do it safely, rather than leave them in the dark? One so-called moral misstep should never cost someone their second chance to live their life. After all, HIV is not some automatic outcome of sex – it arises from unprotected encounters with someone who already carries the virus and that is something you cannot always know at first glance. Many who commit this so-called ‘sin’ never contract HIV at all. So let’s stop pretending that the virus is a judgment, and start treating it as what it is: a preventable medical condition.
Faith should deepen your empathy, not inflate your ego and act as a megaphone for moral superiority.
Imagine if HIV were airborne like COVID—would you still shame the infected, or would you offer compassion the way we did when the whole world was at risk? Why not do the same instead of claiming a higher moral ground simply because you believe in a religion and somehow that makes you better than everyone else? A virus is indifferent to your theology; it knows neither sin nor salvation.
A word to the self-righteous and the loudest religious bigots: If you’re going to condemn someone, at least base it on facts—not fear, confirmation bias, or whatever echo chamber props up your prejudice. Believing in something bigger does not give you the right to look down on others. If you’re religious, great—but faith should deepen your empathy, not inflate your ego and act as a megaphone for moral superiority. Kindness will not kill you. HIV won’t either—not anymore. With treatment, people live full, vibrant lives. So why should a diagnosis strip them of dignity? No one should be dehumanized for being infected by a virus especially not by those who claim to speak in the name of the divine.
As we wait for a cure, we see that hope does not belong to religion alone. That is the promise of science not only in what it discovers, but in what it dares to imagine. In fact, the most profound hope may lie not in heavens above, but in the hands and minds of those who navigates the depths of the lowest probabilities and willingly turn it into a reality as the consequence of choosing reason, love, and relentless compassion. Condemnation may feel righteous but that is not justice, it is just cruelty in sacred disguise. Perhaps, the real affliction is not biological but epistemological because so many people still choose belief without inquiry and judgment without understanding. The true illness is not in the blood, but in the soul that is contaminated by dogma that chooses hate over empathy.
Cover Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash
