As the coronavirus pandemic drags on, a gay ER nurse has voiced his frustrations on Reddit, begging gay men to stop hooking up.
“There’s a time and a place for everything,” he writes of men who continue to hook up despite the virus. He goes on to complain that men who continue to brag on social media about clubbing or hooking up insult he and other healthcare professionals.
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“I’ve worked countless hours trying to protect myself and others with limited PPE [personal protection equipment] and treating patients, and seeing posts saying things about how fun the weekend was […] makes me sick!” he wrote. “I especially am infuriated by the men who are well educated and continued to go out and decide to post about it. Men who are fishing for likes on social media and have no idea what kind of privilege they have.”
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Commenters echoed his thoughts. “If HIV couldn’t stop people from having unprotected sex with a stranger, you really think COVID-19 will stop them from going out,” wrote one. “People are choosing to be ignorant bc party, sex and drugs is more important than a fucking life, you might not be that affected by it, but some boomer, or a cancer patient going through treatment, people whose immune systems are weak, they can die bc of your lifestyle, please stay at home.”
“I have nothing but love for the LGBT community,” wrote another, “but stuff like this makes me embarrassed to be a part of it. I already get disgusted by gay/bi men who communicate in dick pics and random hookups, and it’s even worse when we should limit contact with other people to prevent a global pandemic from getting out of control. I don’t know who needs to hear this, but stay the f*ck home.”
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Despite the fury, other commenters dissented. “Intimacy is a fundamental need and it’s wrong to condemn that,” one commenter said. “It’s easy to write it off as just stupidity (which in some ways is being unable to get higher-level functions to control lower-level cognitive needs.).”
Other commenters took issue with the author’s criticism of gay people. “Just gay people?” questioned one poster. “Dude, I’d say EVERYONE needs to stop going out.”
“I understand your anger and frustrations,” another writer empathized. “Having lived through the HIV/AIDS crisis, and losing too many friends from sheer, unadulterated stupidity, my anger is boundless at this disrespect for ALL human beings, not just the LGBTQ+ community. With my deepest, sincerest gratitude, THANK YOU for the work you’re doing.
Morg
yeah, cause straight ppl dont hook up at all right?
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
THANK YOU!!!
Chrisk
Really getting tired of this “stay the f*ck home” BS. Not everyone can afford to do that princess
djmcgamester
I think the bigger issue is infecting people with compromised immune system or respiratory problems. Now, if your job is “essential” or you need to shop then nothing is going to stop you from going out.
CarterATL
Perhaps you shouldn’t have spent every last dime you earned, princess. It’s irresponsible to not save for a rainy day.
Heywood Jablowme
@ChrisK: You’ve been downplaying Covid-19 since the beginning when you seemed not even to believe it was a real problem – you sounded almost like a Trumpster, lol. You’re usually much more sensible here than you’ve been recently! Have you noticed a fever? chills? loss of sense of smell, etc.? 🙂
Cam
Um Mari Gras in N.O and Spring break in Fl were both majority straight people. But yeah, it’s “the gays” fault.
pickles
Go back to the Queerty home page, y’all and read the story by Actor, Daniel Newman. Then see if the ER doc’s suggestions seem any more relevent. Oh, also, how about that $9,116 bill for NOTHING but laying in a bed and being told he has to go home, “Because he could breathe”. Let’s just watch porn and solo jerk. It just might pass if we DO this right.
Chrisk
Since getting the diagnosis seems to be fairly easy him saying they wouldn’t release it is highly suspect. However, if you come in and demand the emergency bed a fee of coarse will come with it.
jayceecook
@Chrisk do tell us all the facts about how easily it is to get tested in the US let alone other countries. I’m assuming all the information coming from the Healthcare industry about the opposite being true is just fake news? I mean if you have the hard evidence do share.
sillyme
I would rather be safe and not get infected by the virus and take better chances of not going out anywhere and listen to the health care people who deal with it on a daily basis and be safe for I know others of age and then some with more of my respect than some random man to hook up with and get it and come home to either die here or worse than not.
Joshua333
I mean this is one way to get rid of your sugar daddy
jayceecook
So you are still around. I was looking for you to see if you’d either gained some perspective on the COVID-19 situation not being just a “Boomer Doomer” problem or if you had possibly tested positive after being one of the many young people throwing parties to intentionally break stay and home orders then wind up testing positive and in the hospital. I see neither is the case. Fingers crossed for the latter though.
Mundo
Actually, accept the fact that it might only get worse and adjust to that fact.
Apolodorus
He is not saying that only gay people do it. He is addressing gay people in particular because unfortunately we have much more experience in dealing with a pandemic than straight people. We should know better.
Kangol2
Thanks for that assertion of rationality and critical understanding. Gay people do have a prior experience with a pandemic, and one of the encouraging developments so far has been the increasing contributions of public health experts who have familiarity with the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Brian
For anyone under 25 the AIDS epidemic might as well be the Civil War. You shouldn’t expect more from them, they truly don’t have experience with it other than it being a managable condition that some people treat with medication.
1898
i agree with you brian but i’d say that’s true of people under 30 as well; perhaps even people under 35. a 35 year old (born in ’85) wouldn’t have been aware of national events/news until at least 1990, or more realistically 1992-95, and by then the worst of the AIDS crisis was over. Magic Johnson was diagnosed in ’92 and for many americans was the first time we saw that HIV wasn’t fatal. so people growing up in that time frame mostly never experienced the idea that HIV was a death sentence
jayceecook
Exactly.
jayceecook
@1898 Not necessarily true. I was in grade school when HIV was in the news during the 90s era you mentioned. I even wrote an essay about it for my social studies class. My teacher called my mom. Thought I was in trouble. But it turned out she was so moved she cried after reading it and told my mom she was raising a wonderful son. The school even posted a copy on this big board they had in the main area of the school for people to read.
Now I know I’m probably one of the few exceptions. I mean one of my mom’s best friends was gay. He was a big part of our lives. We all went, along with my older brother, to see Philadelphia when it was in theaters. Which is what initially prompted me to write that essay. Also I remember Ryan White and his battle during the 80s and I wasn’t even 10. I believe they even showed some of his funeral on TV. Especially the part where Elton John performed. I may not remember everything because I was so young but I remember a lot more than most of my peers. I still remember bits and pieces of when Live Aid aired on MTV. I’m sure there are others like me out there. Depends on how they were raised. I remember my mother took me to an HIV/AIDS fundraiser and she placed in my arms a newly born baby. That baby was positive because at the time transmission from mother to child was still happening. The medical community hadn’t quite figured out how to avoid it.
Now people in their 20s and early, early 30s I’d say that you are correct. Unfortunately it’s also the reason the number of people testing positive rises often. They just see it as a treatable inconvenience.
ScottOnEarth
So, the headline references, “ER Doc”….and the first sentence states, “a gay ER nurse.” Can you get some basic facts straight? You are writers, so try doing it correctly.
jayceecook
Asking Queerty to fact check or actually report full details of a story they comment on is like asking the GOP and those St Patrick’s day parade people to accept LGBTQ people.
Ain’t. Ever. Going. To. Happen.
Mark Behar
Agree with ScottOnEarth… Bait & switch! Headline says ER Doc, but article refers to ER nurse. Keep making errors like this, and it will call anything you write into question. You are journalists, aren’t you?
Brian
You must be new here. The quality of “journalism” here is about one notch above an In Touch magazine cover story about Jennifer Aniston being pregnant. Facts are irrelevant to Queerty, they only care about creating outrage.
CityguyUSA
Doesn’t matter what people do that aren’t calling attention to themselves in social media.
Hussain-TheCanadian
The United States reached 70,000 infected so far, and within days, the amount is going to surpass China.
You guys need to protect yourselves, this isnt a joke, until a cure is developed, you all need to be careful.
Man About Town
I had no idea intimacy was “a fundamental need.” Thanks for the heads up!
Brian
Celibacy = Death. Who knew?