No glove,no love.some missing facts and given tips

Jennings 2022-01-09 08:02:52

The author does not have a rigorous experience as the starting point of hypocrisy, but from the perspective of a bystander, I try to calmly and objectively watch the film and some neglected facts. On the one hand, I feel that certain comments of this movie have been imposed with a lot of personal subjective feelings. On the other hand, through what I have seen and heard, I take this opportunity to popularize basic knowledge, hoping to help some people (especially the second article below).

Nowadays, when "homosexuality" has risen to political heights along with concepts such as "race" and "feminism", when these sensitive topics are involved, it will inevitably touch the pain of certain groups. I do not deny that The Normal Heart is a complete gay-themed movie, but it is not just a movie that reflects the living conditions of gays. TNH, like the movie Philadelphia, deliberately played down the subjective emotional link between AIDS patients’ diagnosis and death (the director of Korean dramas can make this theme into a world-shaking thing), because the producer did not want to borrow the shadow of AIDS in the 1980s. Under the homosexual lingering breath to win the sympathy and mercy of the audience. The male protagonist Ned represents the screenwriter Larry, and constantly conveys a spirit to the audience, "FIGHT". The focus of the film is to awaken this forgotten history by recreating the difficult struggles of gay groups against public discrimination and government disregard on the issue of HIV/AIDS in the past, and also to make a new generation of young people remember safe sex. importance.

From the beginning of the establishment of GMHC to advocate safe sex, to the anti-discrimination protest against HIV/AIDS, and then to the political struggle against same-sex marriage, screenwriter Larry, as a "warrior", has always been on the front line. When people asked him what he thought of these histories, he would say "I was the one left alive to tell it." indifferently, revealing unspeakable bitterness and helplessness. In the movie, when Ned accepted the doctor Emma's suggestion to dissuade his gay friends from all sexual activities, he was confused and rejected a lot, which directly led to the "runaway" after Mickey. Because the sexual liberation movement of the past 15 years advocated that homosexuals obtain self-identity through sexual behavior, this trend of bringing pleasure to the body and spirit at the same time can not be extinguished by a few words of Ned. When the scientific understanding of HIV gradually surfaced, the danger of promiscuity became self-evident, and people began to realize the necessity of safe sex. In addition, Larry has long predicted that today's gay community after the 30s will form a united front to fight for the legitimacy of same-sex marriages. Same-sex marriage legally protects the rights of same-sex couples (Felix went to Ned’s brother’s office before he died and asked him to leave his inheritance to Ned through "methods", implying that if normal legal channels are followed, the inheritance will be left to Ned. His own son), morally, he controls high-risk sexual behaviors through ethical restraints on one husband (wife) and one husband (wife), thereby indirectly curbing the spread of HIV.

Recently, the HIV drug Truvada ran an advertisement: One pill a day can reduce the HIV infection rate by 99%, which caused a controversy. Realists naturally support the rise of drugs from the perspective of their own interests; but the "fighters" headed by Larry call those who use drugs to reduce high-risk sexual behaviors "coward", and advocate wearing condoms instead of taking drugs. They believe that the advent of drugs will reduce the prevention of everyone, so that promiscuity can take the opportunity to "spring breeze again." . This will be a retrogression in history and a blasphemy against the struggle of same-sex marriage for many years. Although Larry's position is a bit extreme, it is not groundless. Loyalty has always been a luxury for same-sex relationships. Can people's moral values ​​stand the test of temptation after drugs? Time will tell us the answer.

Regarding the conflicts in the movie, you will find that in this movie about homosexuality and HIV/AIDS, the weight of lesbians is almost negligible. Not only that, it is even defamatory. When Estelle wanted to contribute to GMHC after his friend Harvey died, he said to Tommy, "Damn it, I wanna do something! Even though all my lesbian friends say,'What have you guys ever done for us?' But I don't care. This is for Harvey. "It seems that there was a big gap between gay and lesbian groups. Later, I found out on the Internet that there was a dialogue between Bruce and Mickey in the stage version, Mickey: "How do ou feel about Lesbians?" Bruce: "I don't believe in Lesbians." Mickey: "I wonder what they're going to think about all this? If past history is any guide, there's never been much support by either half of us for the other. There is indeed a bitter conflict between the GMHC and the L organization. In reality, at the beginning of the disease outbreak, many L stood up and struggled with G on the "front line". Unfortunately, in the eyes of the mainstream media, the achievements of lesbians were all covered up. The 2011 documentary "We Were Here" tells about what happened on the West Coast of the United States at the same time at TNH. It mentioned that the L organization sought help from the public through various means, "for our boys." The 2012 documentary "United in Anger:

Another contradiction in this film was developed between the GMHC and the government for research funding. The official who called Ned to the White House obviously stole the fish, so he was nervous about whether he would get the disease. If Ned can tell him with certainty that HIV will also spread between heterosexuals, then doctor Emma and GMHC's research fund application path will be much smoother. Another city official, Hiram, said "It's very tricky" during the conflict with the GMHC, which is not unreasonable. He mentioned some figures. At that time, there were more than 300 patients on record, while there were about 500,000 gay men in New York at that time, and the ratio is 0.06%. The ostrich mentality that has nothing to do with itself is the root of social and human inferiority, not to mention the threatened vulnerable groups are already discriminated against. In the absence of scientific evidence and proof of the degree of infection of the disease, I would like to use the figure of 0.06% to discuss an argument for a vulnerable group who has been discriminated against. The difficulties in this way can be imagined. In the 2011 data comparison of the US government's investment in cancer and HIV/AIDS research funds, the cost of investing in HIV/AIDS research accounted for 70% of Cancer research, and the number of patients with HIV/AIDS and Cancer was about 1: 10. The newly diagnosed HIV/AIDS only accounts for 4% of Cancer. In addition, people's prejudice against HIV/AIDS patients is deeply ingrained due to historical reasons, and many people will complain that the government's investment in Cancer research is not solid enough. I think if some of these people’s relatives or friends are HIV patients, I think there will be a 180-degree change in perception. This fight for money seems to be black and white, but in fact there is a large patch of gray between them.

TNH's filming road, like the story in the movie, is generally full of twists and turns. The so-called 90 minutes on stage, 30 years off stage. Many celebrities and producers want to get the copyright of TNH and put it on the big silver/screen. Among them is Barbra Streisand, she is the earliest, most persistent, and the director/producer closest to copyright except Ryan Murphy. But Barbra and Larry finally had conflicts due to the "so-called" disagreement on the script, and finally turned into "feud". After the movie was released, there was a war of words. Larry’s public reason is: He insisted on including sex scenes in the movie, but was rejected by Barbra on the grounds that male-male love is very "distasteful". Barbra recently issued a public statement, emphasizing that it was only for the sake of the movie itself and the audience, and Larry's reason was only to discredit her. Her original intention was to avoid sensitive sections in order to attract a larger audience. Indeed, from the author's personal opinion, as a famous gay icon, Barbra Streisand is the so-called first sister in today's gay rights movement. It is hard to imagine that she will be labeled as "homophobic" by Larry. In the first 10 years when Barbra held the copyright of TNH, the script adaptation basically took shape, and the actors Ralph Fiennes and Kenneth Branagh were also interested in starring. Unfortunately, because of the sensitive subject matter, it was impossible to raise funds for filming and distribution. Finally, I planned to produce it at a low cost and change it to broadcast on TV. But Larry opened up the sky-high price (reported one million), and no TV company was willing to take over. In the end, the copyright was returned to Larry, which dragged on for another 15 years. Before Ryan Murphy took over, Larry wrote again to ask if Barbra still intends to take over, but on the condition that she must follow the script given by Larry to shoot. And Barbra refused Larry because he didn't want the initiative to be taken away. If Larry could accept the $250,000 offer from HBO that year, we might have seen the Barbra Streisand version of TNH starring Ralph Fiennes and Kenneth Branagh 20 years ago. It seems that no matter how heroic, the "fighter" in the face of interests is also a mortal. This twists and turns, which one has gone through, presumably everyone has their own opinions in their hearts.

In addition to mention a small detail, I personally think it is the finishing touch of the film. I don’t know how many people noticed that when Ned was alone in Gay Yale Week, the ending song was The Only Living Boy in New York from Simon & Garfunkel. This song is a "breakup song" written by Paul to Art back then. After the album containing this song was released, the two of them parted ways. The use of this song in this film is really appropriate.


Here are some things about HIV. Considering the main audience of the movie, I think this information will help some people.

1 Regarding history and why it first broke out among gay men in the

1980s when the AIDS storm began, many non-homosexuals were actually infected with HIV. In addition to high-risk sexual behaviors, they also contaminated blood banks by donating blood earlier than HIV+. Areas of blood recipients are infected (female employees of the same company in Philadelphia and Tom Hanks were infected with the virus during blood transfusion); on the other hand, due to the Vietnam War in the 1970s, a large amount of drugs flowed into the United States, and drug users infected each other through intravenous injection . There are still many controversies about the origin of HIV and how the virus came to the United States. The mainstream theory is that indigenous Africans were infected with SIV from orangutans when they slaughtered and ingested orangutans, and then the SIV in the human body evolved into HIV, and then HIV spread from Africa to Haiti, and from Haiti to the continental United States. The first case of death from AIDS in the US AIDS storm is detectable, but the first case of HIV infection cannot be verified because the incubation period of the virus in each individual is different. Inferred from the average incubation period of about 8 years, and the Vietnam War, the time of entry of the virus was about the mid to late 1970s.

Regarding why HIV first broke out among gay men, it was because at the time of initial transmission, it was easier to transmit than between the opposite sex than between the same sex. The HIV virus can only survive in neutral and alkaline conditions. Women's vaginal body fluids are weakly acidic. In other words, even if a male has a relationship with an HIV+ female, the probability of a male being shot will be lower. For example, male A is +, and the woman is -. The semen of male A causes the woman to contract the disease. After the woman has a relationship with the male B, the virus may not be transmitted to the male B. In reality, there are many instances where heterosexual couples find that the woman is + and the man is-after many years of marriage. On the one hand, male-male love is difficult to follow the strict 1 and 0 positions. On the other hand, it is prone to promiscuity. In addition, the gay circle in the 70s and 80s was a relatively small and closed circle. Once an attack-take-all person becomes ill, it will soon spread to most people in the circle. When HIV was first brought into the continental United States and only a few people were infected, the spread of HIV between the opposite sex was very slow. In other words, if 1 and 0 positions can be guaranteed between gay men, it will not lead to an outbreak of AIDS among gay men.

2 Regarding statistics and HIV exposure

, the probability of HIV infection is available for checking. According to whether there is direct blood contact, sexual position 0 and 1, as well as anal and vaginal intercourse, the probability of contracting HIV is not the same. These figures may be different in different countries or different regions of the same country. Although these data do not represent individual cases (because HIV infection is related to many factors: the carrier's physical fitness (viral load), whether there is contact with body fluids (related to whether there are unhealed wounds and contact with infected blood), the body of the exporsure person Quality, etc.), but doctors will use these numbers as criteria for formulating plans.

What if you, unfortunately, (whether intentionally or unintentionally) participated in high-risk sex (such as a broken condom), or the wound was splashed with a source of suspected contaminated blood?

Go to the hospital as soon as possible, and provide all information to the doctor without reservation. The doctor will compare and analyze the risk based on statistical data and recommend whether to adopt PEP (Post-exposure prevention), which includes the Truvada and Kaletra mentioned before. medicine. This is an afterthought that can provide body protection against HIV infection. The effective protection time claimed by PEP is 72 hours after exposure, and the most effective time is 24 hours. There is no scientific data to prove that PEP is definitely useful. Similarly, there is no scientific basis to prove that PEP does not work. So doctors basically recommend this safe solution. However, the side effects of PEP are very strong. Although the intensity also varies from person to person, there are data indicating that about half of the users will give up the medicine halfway. A nurse friend of the author was forced to take PEP for 1 month because the wound on her hand was splashed into the patient's blood, and the patient's HIV status was unknown and refused to be tested. During the period, it was vomiting, pulling, and occasionally visual hallucinations, which was very painful.

Remember, if you think you may have been infected with the virus through body fluids, you need to take PEP as soon as possible! The decay of efficacy in time is rapid.

For HIV testing, I don’t know about saliva testing. But regarding the blood test, the information that the individual has learned is that the test one month after the exposure has a 97% confidence level, but it currently takes three months to be 100% confirmed. The three-month period is limited by the conditions for HIV testing. The current technology seems to be unable to directly detect the virus. It needs to wait for the body to produce measurable HIV antibodies for indirect testing. In an episode of House, Dr Cameron's eyes were splattered with HIV+ blood. She also spent n months waiting to get the final examination report.

3

Do not blindly enjoy sexual partners , no glove, no love before both parties do not have a blood test. This recommendation applies to all sexual orientations (currently there are also examples of infection among Les). In reality, too many people have no idea why they contracted HIV, and condoms have proved to be not 100% reliable. So be responsible for the person you love and also for yourself.

4 About bystanders

Although the current fatality rate of HIV is extremely low, especially when compared with cancer. Some people say that HIV+ is just a label now. As long as you quit drinking and smoking, develop a healthy lifestyle, and take medication regularly as needed, you will live a normal life. That's right, but such open-minded values ​​are not innate. It will take some time to get out of the shadows, and the discrimination and indifference in reality may allow patients to lead abnormal lives. Regarding this last point, I just want to say that we who are the most bystanders, if your friends tell you that you have HIV, it is because they value you, trust you, and need you. Reach them out, a hug, or a light kiss, you may be saving a life that is about to lose the motivation to survive. The height of The Normal Heart is finally reflected here.

View more about The Normal Heart reviews

Extended Reading
  • Zander 2022-04-03 09:01:08

    Kind of messy. There are several authentic performances...

  • Freeda 2022-04-02 09:01:07

    It's not as good as the Dallas buyer group. I don't want to be labeled as gay.

The Normal Heart quotes

  • Tommy Boatwright: You know, I'm very interested in starting some sort of service for the patients. We've got to start talking about them. Also, there are a lot of very scared people out there, and they're desperate for information. I'd like to start a hotline.

    Bruce Niles: [to the guy sitting on his left] Who's he?

    Tommy Boatwright: Ew! He does not know who I am yet! HE is Tommy Boatwright. In real life, HE is a hospital administrator. He's here to help. And he's a southern bitch!

    Bruce Niles: Bruce Niles.

    Tommy Boatwright: Nice to meet you.

    Bruce Niles: My pleasure.

    Tommy Boatwright: You're very handsome.

    Mickey Marcus: He knows.

  • Ned Weeks: Ben, you mean more to me than anyone in the whole world. You always have. Ben, you've gotta say it!

    Ben Weeks: Say what?

    Ned Weeks: I am the same as you! Just say it! Say it!

    Ben Weeks: [after a pause] No. You're not. I'm not gonna say it.

    Ned Weeks: Every time I loose this fight it hurts more.