Outdated dogma spreads disease
AS he pontificates on the spread of AIDS, Kevin Myers appears to feel justified in equating the Catholic Church's moral guidelines opposing the distribution of condoms with the vital decriminalisation of homosexuality in the US (Irish Independent, September 21).
From the time when homosexuality was commonly believed to be a sin, a moral flaw, a disease even, to the empowering gay-rights movement of the 1960s, the AIDS epidemic is one chapter in a long and ongoing history of a minority community who dared to face bigotry head on and rise above it.
Sorry to burst your bubble Mr Myers, but sexual relations between men did not begin with decriminalisation.
They will always exist and AIDS is not a disease that affects gay men only -- it also affect the heterosexual community.
This epidemic forced the world to open its eyes to the fact that the gay community -- long victims of ostracism and hatred -- were now also victims of a disease of catastrophic proportions.
AIDS was an unexpected blow to gay liberation.
However, the crisis invigorated the community politically to fight not only for a medical cure to the disease but also for wider acceptance of homosexuality across the United States and far beyond.
I would gladly follow Stephen Fry's moral guidance of a gay secular life lived openly and honestly over a church whose outdated dogma has succeeded only in further spreading this appalling disease.
N. Moran
Dublin 7
Irish Independent
