Friday October 6, 2006 SGN.org |
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Volume 34 Issue 40 |
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Wednesday, Oct 15, 2008
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SEATTLE'S GAY HISTORY - Look ma, I got VD! (circa. 1930 - 1981) |
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| SEATTLE'S GAY HISTORY - Look ma, I got VD! (circa. 1930 - 1981) | |
| All life forms, such as STDs are just doing what humans do by nature, looking for a hole to survive on a planet plagued by invasions. Wherever there is a hole, something is going to live in it or some damn human is going to stuff garbage into it.
Venereal disease, of which there are more than twenty, comes from the word Venus. The origin of VD is not clear (where did the planet or humans come from?) but mans parasites probably evolved with him and are just as deadly given the right entry into the body, but not by bad air or fermented dirt, machinations of devils or gods punishment for human iniquity. Forget ancient STD cures like boiling, bloodletting and thrusting ones infected member into the body of a live rooster or a frog that had been split in two. Venereal disease has been a world wide problem for a long time, even for Lewis and Clarke on their historic 1803 expedition across America (sex on the trail is glossed over by most historians). Of all the horrific dangers along the trail, one of the greatest and most feared was venereal disease from first Americans who may have caught it from early white trappers and even travelers from South America. The last stage of syphilis caused Lewiss terminal insanity. He shot himself twice and then, some say, slashed his body from head to toe, adding strips of flesh to the gunpowder -- burned holes in his chest and head. Issac Monroe got Syphilis in Los Angeles in 1955: There was this nurse I call Nurse Ratchet who refused to give shots to homosexuals because they got what they deserved. Before Penicillin (1938) an infected person with Gonorrhea was in for a prolonged and painful ordeal. Jimmy Kelly remembers: In 75 years, Ive had gonorrhea three times and one time it put me out of commission for a whole summer. When I urinated it was red with blood and very painful. It had also infected my prostate gland, but not my testicles that would have made me sterile. I was treated every weekday all summer. The Doctor inserted a rubber syringe filled with a purplish medication called Argyrol just into the head of my penis and with a squeeze forced this liquid into me and held for ten minutes. The Doctor also applied heat to my prostate by inserting into my rectum a rubber tube with a ball on one end that would lie up against the organ and bring blood to the area. The heat came from an electrified wire in the center of the rubber tube. Seattles own Doctor Killdare has been one of the Gay communitys Gay doctors since the early 1960s. In Medical school I was very closeted about being Gay and when the subject came up in school I felt everyone was looking at me. I knew of only three Gay doctors in Seattle: Doctors Riedesel, Brown and Converse the Speed doctor and the source of a number of diet pill addictions. A friend of mine visited me from San Francisco and said there were dozens of out Gay doctors there. Within a week of his visit he met four others in Seattle, so, Gay doctors were out there but not necessarily out. I used to go to the Atlas Steam Baths on second avenue and one night the STD Research Clinic at the University of Washington was giving blood tests for Syphilis. I was informed I had it and given Penicillin shots. A lot of Gays regarded the Clinics efforts as an invasion of privacy; you had to give your name and address. In 1960, Gay men greatly feared their name finding its way onto a police list of homosexuals. The thought of it, true or not, added to an already existing paranoia. Bath houses are basically nameless, so, I could only supply them with one name. I called him up and told him I gave his name and that he should be tested. He exploded. How could you!! As it turned out he had been infected and he learned that its all about survival and not about blame or lists. Its about another miracle of life finding a hole to stuff garbage in or as a base of operations to prepare for a major invasion. All life forms are driven by procreation and that takes real estate that always ends in war without negotiation. I will be forever thankful to the Clinic for saving me from Syphilis. Hunter Hansfield, former head of the Seattle / King County Public Healths STD Program and, now, STD expert with Batelle Institute at the University of Washington recalls: Before 1970, STD research was anecdotal, word of mouth and mostly a heterosexual problem. Gay sexual activity and awareness was well below the radar screen of understanding by the Health Department, but Stonewall brought so many Gays out (and a rise in STDS)... They are some of the earliest studies in the country documenting STDs in Gay men, called by some the Gay bowel syndrome, etc. But those doing the research were not sex police. If they pushed too hard, cooperation with the Gay community would be lost. As for lists [given] to the police -- given the tether of the times and the social prejudices -- I think it was not an unreasonable fear by Gay men, but a fear not actually realized. I just dont think it ever happened; perhaps, in East Po Dunk red state but not in Seattle or King County. Doctor Killdare continues: Ive treated many patients with STDs, including Hepatitis. When the Medical Director of Swedish Hospital learned that several (Gay) workers had Hepatitis B, he was going to immunize the entire hospital staff costing thousands. I assured him that they did not get it from handling blood in the hospital but from anal intercourse. In the early days, when prostitutes were getting AIDS, a lot of them were patients of mine. When they were on their period, in order not to loose a customer they switched to anal intercourse. Realizing the power and spread of germs, I predicted in the 1960s that someday there will be a virus that will knock out the immune system. Gay men and women and minorities tend to have sex with only their own kind, so any infectious disease shows up right away in a small population. If they had sex with everybody, any spreading disease would be so dispersed it might have gone unrecognized for years. In the meantime a suicidal life form is mounting its troops, unaware that its occupation of a human body will surely result in its death as well. The world owes a big thank you to Gays, minorities and others for identifying the terrible virus early. |
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International Readers |
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copyright Seattle Gay News - DigitalTeamWorks 2006