Socially Conservative Southern Attitudes Complicate Fight on AIDS

FLORIDA: "Reports Suggest that Socially Conservative Attitudes, Common in Southern Cities Such as Jacksonville, Make It More Difficult to Fight the Spread of AIDS"
Florida Times-Union (09.30.08):: Jeremy Cox

A report released in July by the Southern AIDS Coalition (SAC) cites "social conservatism" as one of the key reasons why the South leads the nation's four regions in the number of AIDS cases.

"Shame and fear of stigmatizing reactions on the part of others may lead to reluctance to seek testing and treatment for HIV and other STDs," said SAC, a nonprofit consisting mainly of government health department leaders. "Anecdotal evidence across the South indicates that the prominence of the church, with its sexual prohibitions, intensifies fear of stigma."

Bob Catalla, medical director of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation's Jacksonville clinic, recently attended the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City. There, he listened as speakers discussed cultural barriers to HIV/AIDS prevention, including homophobia and lack of awareness among youth. "While most would equate these barriers to exist in some remote developing country," he said, "I couldn't help but think of home."

In 1996, a lawsuit forced Duval County's sex education component to go from abstinence-only to include discussions of abstinence and birth control. Parents can exempt their children from the lessons, though only around 1 percent do so, said Kathy Bowles, supervisor of the county's safe and healthy schools program.

The state no longer funds billboards or bus signs as part of its public awareness campaign in Jacksonville. "There's this underlying [sentiment of], 'We don't want this to be visible,'" said Dick Niemann, a longtime HIV/AIDS activist in Jacksonville.