# How Magic Johnson really got AIDS virus? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 15, 2012, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-magic-johnson-really-got-aids-virus/612908 "2012-02-15T06:46:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-magic-johnson-really-got-aids-virus/612908/61 "2012-02-16T05:14:46Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > There’s also another possibility, one which has not yet been discussed here: Magic had anal sex with a very convincing male-to-female transsexual. Umm then he’d have to have been the reciever, and you’d have to be REALLY convincing then. “Oh, that’s my …_finger_ up your butt. Yeah, my finger.” ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-magic-johnson-really-got-aids-virus/612908/62 "2012-02-16T05:44:27Z")
> [@Pablo\_O\_Malley](#): > > same thing david bowie and mick jagger, among others, had, they got so many women it got boring so they occasionally tried men for variety The whole Bowie and Jagger thing was only a myth, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-magic-johnson-really-got-aids-virus/612908/63 "2012-02-16T06:16:55Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > A certain number of people in this world have one of two characteristics: > > 1. They are long term HIV survivors. That is, they have detectable HIV antibodies, and detectable virus, in their blood but despite that they live a long, long time, years or even decades, showing few or no symptoms. > > 2. They can not catch HIV. > > Both of those traits seem to be genetic. Unfortunately, they’re also rare traits. There is at least one such gene originating in Europe that prevents HIV infection, and seems linked to resistance to bubonic plague as well. There is at least one gene from Africa that, if you have a double-dose, means you _can not_ catch HIV no matter how much you’re exposed to it because for those people HIV simply has no way to enter the cell. There is at least one African gene that confers long-term survival but does not prevent infection. > > It is possible that Magic is one of the lucky ones, a long-term surviving HIV positive person. That is fascinating. Is it possible to test a person to see if he/she has these genes? (apologies if that is a stupid question) ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-magic-johnson-really-got-aids-virus/612908/64 "2012-02-16T06:27:46Z")
I would wonder, too, about any contaminated hypodermic supplies used in routine sports medicine. ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-magic-johnson-really-got-aids-virus/612908/65 "2012-02-16T06:32:42Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > all I can say is that he hasn’t had sex with me. But if he has you would know ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-magic-johnson-really-got-aids-virus/612908/66 "2012-02-16T07:32:11Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > By the end of the 90’s the major source of transmission had become needles; with the realization of the mode of transmission most gays had taken precautions. See post #2 on this thread which quote the CDC. Only 9% of infections are IV-drug associated, and 61% are male-male. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-magic-johnson-really-got-aids-virus/612908/67 "2012-02-16T08:14:02Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Umm then he’d have to have been the reciever, and you’d have to be REALLY convincing then. “Oh, that’s my …_finger_ up your butt. Yeah, my finger.” In my experience (and in the experience of a whole lot of other gay men), ostensibly straight men who dabble in the down-low are almost exclusively orally active or anally passive, i.e. they are the “insertees.” The reason is simple: They seek experiences that they cannot get at home, with their women. Since HIV is rarely transmitted orally, straight guys who get the virus from other men are almost exclusively “receivers.” And regarding the gene that prevents HIV infection: My partner surely must have it. Before we met, he engaged in what we now know as “risky” behavior with thousands of men. By all rights, he should have been dead 30 years ago, yet he is HIV-negative. In fact, he’s never even had any kind of STD. If it matters, he is ethnically Persian (Iranian). ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-magic-johnson-really-got-aids-virus/612908/68 "2012-02-16T08:39:03Z")
> [@Pablo\_O\_Malley](#): > > There is politics in AIDS, believe it or not…the right wants to beleive and wants u to beleive that AIDS is mostly a disease of degenerates, people on the fringe of society not worth saving, the gays, and to a lesser extent, IV drug users…therefore, not much energy or public funds should be used on the problem… if magic got it from gay sex, which the right wing mags push that theory, that reinforces the right’s view of the issue Uh, no it doesn’t. It does the exact opposite: contrary to their claims that only fringe degenerates get AIDS, it shows that widely admired, respected, and socially useful people—people “worth saving”, as you put it—get the disease too. So they must either reject that part of their argument’s premise which equates homosexuals with fringe degenerates, or reject the premise in its entirety. ---
**Author:** ![Batfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Batfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batfish)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-magic-johnson-really-got-aids-virus/612908/69 "2012-02-16T12:05:57Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Pure speculation, but FWIW I use this when I give my annual bloodborne pathogen training at my workplace: MJ, as a basketball star, had access to a significantly larger pool of women than the average male. This would increase his chances above the norm for F-M Het transmission. Also, if he had the psychological compulsion to meet that challenge, he may have experienced chafing and had open sores on his gentials that allowed infection. > > Plenty of young guys rub themselves raw. If one in several million of them has the opportunity to be rubbed raw by several different women every day; hundreds of women over hundreds of days, the statistical averages go out the window. I can’t imagine why workplace bloodborne pathogen training would include the sexual practices of anyone. Unless your workplace is a brothel. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-magic-johnson-really-got-aids-virus/612908/70 "2012-02-16T13:35:01Z")
Nope, not a brothel. Nor the bored-stupid environment you seem to cherish ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-magic-johnson-really-got-aids-virus/612908/71 "2012-02-16T13:49:05Z")
I wonder if this could be something to do with [on the Down-low](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down-low_%28sexual_slang%29)? > [@](#): > > Down-low is an African American slang term that refers to a subculture of men who usually identify as heterosexual, but who have sex with men; some avoid sharing this information even if they have female sexual partner(s). ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-magic-johnson-really-got-aids-virus/612908/72 "2012-02-16T18:06:45Z")
> [@Pablo\_O\_Malley](#): > > magic of course doesn’t want anyone to know he’s likely bisexual Again, there’s no evidence of this. You can think whatever you like, but you should keep that in mind before you claim it as a fact. Not a lot of men get HIV from sex with women, but some do, and he was having evidently sex with tons of women. Nobody’s ever come forward with anything resembling evidence he was having sex with men or taking drugs. Earlier you said “I believe it’s certain now” as if more facts about him have come to light, which they haven’t. As far as the culture war aspect… AIDS is not the controversial disease it was a couple of decades ago. It never made the huge jump to heterosexuals that some people predicted it would, but it’s well understood that straight people do get it. George W. Bush was able to get some significant new AIDS funding for people in Africa and I don’t recall a conservative revolt over that. ---
**Author:** ![thelonggoodbye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@thelonggoodbye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelonggoodbye)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2012, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-magic-johnson-really-got-aids-virus/612908/73 "2012-09-22T08:05:28Z")
[http://fumento.com/aids/specmagic.html](http://fumento.com/aids/specmagic.html) ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2012, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-magic-johnson-really-got-aids-virus/612908/74 "2012-09-22T08:16:29Z")
I like how that article (now twenty years old) features a small picture of Magic Johnson and a big picture of Liberace. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2012, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-magic-johnson-really-got-aids-virus/612908/75 "2012-09-22T09:08:09Z")
> [@Pablo\_O\_Malley](#): > > the same thing david bowie and mick jagger, among others, had, they got so many women it got boring so they occasionally tried men for variety Or alternatively, Mars Bars. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2012, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-magic-johnson-really-got-aids-virus/612908/76 "2012-09-22T13:42:01Z")
Our country’s reaction to AIDS is one of the biggest blots on the medical and political system. Since only “those people” got it in the beginning, it was largely ignored for ten years. It was only when other people started getting the HIV virus that people took it seriously. It still makes me very angry. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2012, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-magic-johnson-really-got-aids-virus/612908/77 "2012-09-22T13:52:30Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > Well, speaking for myself I think it’s culturally kind of interesting – are there _any_ black celebrities who are out of the closet? Just tossing another one: [Jonathan\_Capehart](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Capehart), columnist for The Washington Post and contributor to MSNBC is openly gay. But I agree it seems to be a smaller percentage of gay black men out of the closet that other cohorts. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2012, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-magic-johnson-really-got-aids-virus/612908/78 "2012-09-22T13:56:33Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > I like how that article (now twenty years old) features a small picture of Magic Johnson and a big picture of Liberace. zombie or no maybe it’s to scale on some kind of rating system that you don’t know about. ---
**Author:** ![Jesta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Jesta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jesta)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2012, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-magic-johnson-really-got-aids-virus/612908/79 "2012-09-22T14:25:55Z")
> [@Khristy](#): > > Are you saying he got it from someone else’s magic johnson? AbraCadaver? ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2012, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-magic-johnson-really-got-aids-virus/612908/80 "2012-09-22T15:56:54Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Just tossing another one: [Jonathan\_Capehart](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Capehart) An unfortunate turn of phrase, in the context. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-magic-johnson-really-got-aids-virus/612908.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-magic-johnson-really-got-aids-virus/612908.md?page=5)