According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's 2006 report on AIDS in the U.S., the majority of AIDS and HIV victims on record are homosexual.
But as former Northern Colorado AIDS Project director Irene Vernon said, the numbers might not accurately reflect the true distribution of the disease.
This, she said, is because in the early days of discovery, only homosexuals got tested while many heterosexuals felt safe enough to not get a test.
In 1981 doctors believed that heterosexuals were not at any risk of contagion, and initially described AIDS as a disease that only affects gays and drug users, and as more homosexuals tested positive for AIDS, more people began referring to the disease as a "gay plague."
Pastor Brent Cunningham of the Christian Timberline Church in Fort Collins maintains a blog in which he has discussed how hatred of homosexuality led some to believe that God was exacting a wrath on gays, and a lack of a will to understand became widespread in misinformed communities.
"I don't know what would motivate someone to think like that," he said. "I suppose it's an easy response to an issue that is believed to be morally wrong. It's easy in that it releases us from responsibility."
Cunningham said AIDS is a problem in heterosexual communities as well, but he said regardless of sexual orientation, he understands how Christians see AIDS as a consequence for moral failing.
"It's promiscuity that exposes people to venereal disease, just as smoking exposes us to lung cancer and overeating to heart disease," he said. "Although there are extremists who believe God hates people, it's not the majority. The Church has responded (to AIDS) with love regardless of vice."
This story is an excerpt from a Collegian article. Visit The Collegian to read the full story.
