Monkeypox can spread from close physical contact regardless of sexual orientation or race and scapegoating or demonising the entire LGBTQ community as ‘spreaders’ will be a repeat of the mistake made during the AIDS epidemic, healthcare professionals and activists have said.
The monkeypox outbreak has raised widespread fear for the LGBTQ community amid reports of the disease being traced among men having sex with men. Indian equal rights activist Harish Iyer said monkeypox doesn’t just spread in the LGBTQ community. “It happened in the community when there was pride month going on and there were more events in the community. It is just an episode of everyone going to a wedding and then getting Covid. So you need to look at them as victims and not perpetrators,” Iyer told PTI. He said the monkeypox outbreak is already stigmatising the community and people who developed fever and are scared to go for a medical test.