There are no gay-specific viruses, being an LGTBI person is not a risk factor for contracting monkeypox as it is a disease that affects the entire population. As the World Health Organisation (WHO) said in a statement on monkeypox released on Thursday 19 May: “Stigmatising groups of people because of a disease is never acceptable. It can be an obstacle to ending an outbreak, as it may cause people not to seek medical care, and lead to undetected spread“.
UNAIDS also expressed concern on Sunday 22 May that “Some reports and public commentary on Monkeypox have used language and images, especially portrayals of *LGBTI and African people, that reinforce homophobic and racist stereotypes and exacerbate stigma“.
Thus, disseminating this kind of information, which is uncertain and can be very dangerous, as monkeypox can affect everyone equally, women and men and of different sexual orientations, stigmatises one group and can leave the rest vulnerable and neglect prevention. This disease affects the entire population, as all experts affirm.
In compliance with Law 11/2014, in its article 15 (paragraphs c and f), the CAC (Audiovisual Council of Catalonia) should monitor all information contrary to its wording. Given that we cannot admit any information contrary to the rights and respect of LGTBI people.
We must provide information based on scientific evidence and avoid LGTBIphobic treatments, both on networks and in the media, and use anti-stigma language. As reported by ‘Canal Salud’: “Monkeypox is a rare zoonosis (disease transmitted from animals to humans). It is caused by a virus of the genus Orthopoxvirus, family Poxviridae, called MPXV (Monkeypox virus). It produces symptoms similar to smallpox, which was eradicated in 1980, but less severe, such as fever, headache, muscle aches and skin rash. Most affected people recover within 2-4 weeks. The most severe cases tend to occur in children, with a case fatality rate of less than 10%. The virus does not spread easily from person to person and the risk to the population is low“.
Therefore, transmission occurs in the context of a close relationship with the infected person, not necessarily sexually, and it is not exclusive to the LGTBI+ population, which is why we ask for responsibility from the media, health authorities and social and political agents when dealing with and providing information about it.
Joaquim Roqueta, Health spokesperson for the LGTBIcat Platform insists that “We must avoid stigmatising the people affected, whatever their gender or sexual orientation, as well as leisure spaces, such as the closure of a gay sauna in Madrid, and not stigmatise practices such as chemsex or the people who practice it, as it has been insistently linked in certain media to monkeypox and high-risk sexual practices“.
Finally, from the LGTBIcat Platform and all its member organisations, we put ourselves at the disposal of the health authorities to work together to give preventive messages both to the LGTBI+ collective and to the general population in order to give a joint response to this health alert.
