March 2005

Party AIDS - what the newspapers said

    

  

 
On 9 March 2005, Senior Minister of State for Health, Balaji Sadasivan, told Parliament about his concerns about the rising HIV statistics in Singapore.

If you read carefully the transcript, archived in Party AIDS 1, you'll see that he dealt with the HIV problem among heterosexuals and other risk groups as much as with homosexuals.

Yet, much of the hoo-ha that followed was over his mention of the link with "gay parties". Partly, it was because it was poorly supported by data, partly because his mention of an anonymous epidemiologist made people think he had something to hide, but mostly, in my view, it was the work of the Straits Times.

Look at how 'Today' newspaper reported Balaji's speech the morning after. You can see it in the lower half of the appendix Party AIDS 2. The story in 'Today' was headlined, "MOH may fight rising cases of AIDS with over-the-counter test kits", focussing on another major theme of Balaji's statement. (Actually the idea of such test-kits can be quite controversial too, but there is hardly any debate).

Look instead at how the Straits Times reported the same event (Upper half of Party AIDS 2). It's headline was "Gay parties may have led to sharp rise in new Aids cases"

Sentence 1 - sharp rise in AIDS cases, linked to gay parties;

Sentence 2 - new cases rose 28%;

Sentence 3 - 9/10 men, 1/3 gay;

Sentence 4 - spike may be linked to Nation parties

Sentence 5 - foreign gays come and seed infection in Singapore

Sentence 6 - only a hypothesis

Sentence 7 - as many as 8,000 attendees

You can see how the headline and opening sentences about the general rise in HIV cases (what the newspaper calls 'AIDS cases') are admixed with statements about gays and the Nation parties. This manner of writing leaves the reader with the strong impression equating AIDS cases generally with gay men and the "gay parties".

The story seemed to suggest that the gay parties and infected gay foreigners were the main engines driving the rise in HIV infection in the population as a whole. It was hardly surprising then, that people accused the minister of being simplistic in suggesting that a single event caused the year-long rise in HIV infections across the board.

As a Maureen Koh said in her letter to the Straits Times forum, published 12 March 2005,

We have an Aids problem and two thirds of the afflicted are heterosexuals who can not only pass the infection to their spouses but also to their unborn children.

But what do we do? We focus on the one third - gays - to explain the sharp rise in new Aids cases last year.

And we blame the 'epidemic' on the annual party in Sentosa, ignoring the 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week activity that has also, by coincidence, mushroomed in the Joo Chiat and Geylang red-light districts.

But was the Straits Times' story an accurate reflection of what Balaji said in Parliament? It certainly was more salacious, but was it also irresponsible?

* * * * *

The Sunday edition of the Straits Times ran a follow-up titled, "What happened at Sentosa gay parties" with a sub-header, "Balaji had told Parliament that these parties might be the reason for 28 per cent spike in Aids cases last year." See the full text in Party AIDS 5

As you can see, again, the newspaper linked the gay parties with the 28 percent rise in HIV infections generally. This is quite different from how the minister put it. In the transcript, you can see that he spoke separately about different population groups. It was only when he was speaking about infection among gay men, prefaced by the remark, "We do not know the reasons for the sharp increase of HIV in the gay community," that he mentioned the gay parties. When he spoke about other population risk groups, he mentioned other concerns.

Further down the article, the Sunday Times mentioned a 'Sam' who met a Hongkonger at the Nation 03 party and slipped off to the latter's hotel, clearly to have sex. The newspaper then offered its opinion in the next sentence,

Although he insisted that he always uses a condom, even with his steady partner, and that he is HIV negative, his behaviour is cause for concern.

If he always uses a condom, why is his behaviour a cause of concern, unless the very notion of casual sex is to be frowned upon? This kind of media slant is very unhelpful. If people use condoms, they should be praised, otherwise people will say, if I don't use condoms, I'm damned, if I use condoms, I'm also damned, so what the heck?

A little further down, the Straits Times gave space to the anti-gay Christian right. It said,

But family life educator Koh Su Yin said 'By having the parties, we are sending the message to young people that such a lifestyle is okay. It also desensitises and normalises a behaviour which would be construed intuitively as unnatural.

'We would not want young people to be attracted to the gay lifestyle as it undermines the basic family value of committed love, the importance of marriage and the stability of a family that constitutes mother- and father-love.'

As I mentioned in the article, Party AIDS: what the minister said, so long as the gay minority feel that the whole government and its lapdog media are fundamentally anti-gay, there will be so little trust that the effectiveness of any government action in this matter will be seriously undercut.

We may talk till we are hoarse about education and awareness, but I have the funny feeling, gay men generally know the facts. Yet they still behave in risky ways. Why? Is it possible that they view the government and authority in general with such odium, that like immature teenagers, they will engage in self-destructive behaviour just to spite them? 

Articles like these from the Straits Times are what the minister has to fight against if he is to get anywhere.

* * * * *

The following day, it was The New Paper's turn to sensationalise the story and milk it for newspaper sales. You can see its multi-part feature in Party AIDS 4.

Like its sister publications, the Straits Times and the Sunday Times, the New Paper also loosely referred to gay parties as the cause for the overall population's increase in HIV infections, e.g. in the sentence,

Earlier this week, Senior Minister of State (Health) Dr Balaji Sadasivan said the sharp rise in new HIV and Aids cases last year could be linked to these Nation parties.

It's all due to the gays and their hedonistic lifestyle. 

Also, once again, the Christian anti-gay brigade is given a chance to spread disinformation. Not misinformation, but disinformation.

A counsellor from a local charity group noted 'Though the MSMs (men who have sex with men) make up only a third of the number of HIV cases, the incidence rate among homosexuals is actually more than 15 times that of heterosexuals.

'So naturally, parties which attract a large gay community become a concern.'

The clue lies in the "15 times". This figure didn't come from the government. The counsellor himself derived it by assuming that gay people make up 1% of the population. 

No one else but Christian fundamentalists uses this figure, which they came up with themselves, and which is far smaller than most surveys have shown. 

The purpose of such disinformation is to exaggerate the danger that homosexuals pose to society -- the notion of a filthy reservoir of infection -- in order to promote stigmatisation and condemation.

Well, folks, that's the Straits Times, Sunday Times and the New Paper for you.

© Yawning Bread 

 

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