Big Brother hits HIV programs

OPINION | Open Forum
by Julie Davids, Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project
December 30, 2005

Ever had sex with someone of the same gender, or exchanged sex for drugs or money? The U.S. government now wants to know about it -- if you get an HIV test or participate in a group discussion on safer sex that's supported with any federal dollars.

Starting on Jan. 1, the federal Centers for Disease Control will require a first wave of states to start reporting an unprecedented range of information from federally funded HIV prevention programs. It's called "PEMS" (Program Evaluation and Monitoring System), and it's a mandatory computerized database with hundreds of questions designed to evaluate and monitor HIV prevention efforts.

Full story here: http://www.planetout.com/news/feature.html?sernum=1288&navpath=/topics/health/hiv/

:eyes:

Even though they claim that the personal information and questionnaire information aren't stored together, this could very well scare people away from getting tested. People may not like the idea of having to answer intimate personal questions about their life that will be transmitted to who knows who, and with good reason.

This government is getting out of control.

...is out of control.

Is anyone else starting to feel like Rachel Weiss' character in "The Constant Gardener" ?

It boggles the mind, but this is, after all, the most fascist government the United States has ever had. Whose brilliant idea was it to make the people most in need of prevention programs extremely unwiling to take part in such programs? I suspect :tinfoilhat: this is a GOP (read: Talibangelical) plot to both both cut these programs from the budget ("See? No one goes to them anyway.") and fuel anti-gay bigotry and hatred ("See? HIV infection rates are rising sharply among gay men; they are a dangerous health threat to the nation as well as a dangerous moral threat.")