I wasn’t there myself when he got it, so I cannot fathom how anyone could imagine that my opinion would be in any way valid or relevant.
Of couse, in 1992, AIDS was still mostly the “gay disease”; so it’s no surprise that the majority of cases reported were still from gay sex. It seems to hav spread like wildfire (??) in the free-for-all gay communities, especially SF. It was the perfect storm of motive and opportunity, the one activity they indulged in as often and widely as possible was most capable of spreading the disease and unlike male-to-female vs. female-to-male, it was not as much of a mainly one-way vector. (Assuming most people indulged as both giver and receiver). Plus the infection could take years to become obvious.
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.
[Moderating]
While the OP stated his opinions and asked for those of others, many people have been providing useful factual information that counters his assumptions and preconceptions. So so far I think it’s OK for GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
As a black male, I’ve known so many people with AIDS and HIV but never once came across a black straight male with HIV, that didn’t do IV drugs.
So while it’s possible he got HIV from straight sex, I think it was probably a needle that got him. HIV is really a tricky thing. There are reports of people getting stuck ONCE with an HIV infected needle (lab workers) and coming down with HIV and lab workers getting multiple sticks and never getting it.
There’s obviously a lot of things coming into play when deciding who or who does not get it.
Has anybody ever reported Magic using IV drugs? I haven’t heard about it.
Ok, let us agree that he might have a large penis as the rumors say? And, if you have a large penis, and a woman gives you head, there is a good chance her teeth can tear the skin. Then if you have anal sex – again with large penis- bleeding will ensue. Blood from anus can go into cuts on penis.
Unlikely? Sure. Not one time in a 1000. But if you have that many partners, then the chances are not that bad.
This is great, and kind of gross
Sequential thread titles for the win.
How Magic Johnson really got AIDS virus
Bareback Riding Question
Harold Perrineau
And Magic is definitely part of that group. I know someone who personally saw him handing hotel room key cards out like candy to ladies at postgame parties. I doubt that even Magic himself has a very reliable estimate of how many different women he had sex with, but ‘hundreds’ is a real good guess.
I have no idea how he got it, but I saw him at a Lakers game a few years ago and was surprised at how healthy he looked, given that he has been HIV positive for so many years. Whatever drug cocktail he is on is working wonders.
All in all, does it really matter how Magic Johnson got AIDS?
Yes, it does, and here’s why, and is the basis for my question:
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…the left beleives the opposite and wants u to believe it too, they beleive AIDS is a mainstream disease, lots of straight people get it from normal sex between men and women, so its a general public health problem and lots of your money should be spent fighting it
so if magic johnson got it from a woman, which is the mainstream press story for the last 20 yrs, that reinforces the left’s will on the issue…but if magic got it from gay sex, which the right wing mags push that theory, that reinforces the right’s view of the issue
magic of course doesn’t want anyone to know he’s likely bisexual, so he claims he got it from a girl…he would have good reason to lie about this if he really did get it from a man…it looks like magic had 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
A certain number of people in this world have one of two characteristics:
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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.
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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.
Really? Not Waaaalt’s dad?! Not to dispute, but it’s not mentioned on Wikipedia or IMDB. As for the others, the only one I’ve ever heard of is R. Kelly, and that’s a joke, right?
You’ve never heard of Wanda Sykes? Lucky.
Overlooking the lack of capitalization, I think Pablo actually has a point. Disregarding the left/right angle, how about simple use of public resources and allocation of medical research? I remember back in the 80s or early 90s some Act Up type people saying in the press that they wanted to see people of all walks of life coming down with AIDS so that the public would take it seriously and make it a public health priority. (IIRC this was rumored or speculated to be the motivation of that Florida dentist 20 years ago)
But . . . what if AIDS is actually very low risk prospect for the vast majority of the population? Whatever Magic Johnson was doing – either having male-on-male sex, having male-on-thousands-of-females sex, or shooting up heroin, it sounds like it wasn’t something 95%+ of people ever needs to worry about. And if so, should public health risks like tuberculosis and antibiotic resistant infections be given greater priority in public health funding?
How is that “a point” if there’s no actual reason to believe that Magic Johnson actually perpetrated such a charade?
Did Johnson ever occasionally have sex with men? I dunno; all I can say is that he hasn’t had sex with me. But if he has, it must have been with only a very small fraction of the number of women he’s had sex with. Even if we accept the OP’s figure that transmission is 50 times more likely in gay sex than in female-to-male, all the evidence is that Johnson had sex with a lot more than 50 times as many women as men. So it’s significantly more likely that he got it from a woman than a man.
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.
If that’s addressed to me, I don’t think I implied any charade is involved. At our best guess, Magic either (1) had straight sex with literally thousands (maybe tens of thousands) of women, and unprotected sex at that; (2) had gay (and likely bottom) sex with a man or men, or (3) shot up intravenous drugs. For your average straight guy who isn’t a basketball star or junkie, and your average woman who doesn’t have a sexual history with a basketball star or a junkie, then – dare I say it – it sounds like AIDS isn’t as big a health threat as it’s been painted – painted with no small help from the disease’s poster person, Magic Johnson.