AITA for arguing that gay bath houses are breeding grounds for STD's

YTA

I agree with his anger at your use of the terms “clean” and “unclean”. STDs aren’t the result of being dirty in some way, especially HIV. It’s a virus, not the result of someone not washing their body correctly or some other bullshit. You wouldn’t call someone who developed cancer after contracting HPV unclean, you’d say they were dealing with a disease. Even if that wasn’t your intent, clearly calling someone who has a disease “unclean” isn’t cool.

Secondly, the idea that you’d say that someone who had unsafe sex and contracted an STD doesn’t deserve your sympathy is a little cold. There are plenty of people out there who make mistakes and have sex without protection and end up fine. There are plenty of people who end up with curable STDs. And there are people who end up with currently incurable diseases like HIV. Maybe they shouldn’t make a habit of having unprotected sex, and know their risks, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve your sympathy. You don’t know anything about how they contracted that disease, it’s possible it was from someone they trusted, or maybe it was a one-time thing that ended up the worst case scenario. HIV is treatable and can be managed, but it is still a life-long disease and still has the potential to fuck up peoples lives.

I agree that people should do everything in their power to prevent harm and spreading of STDs, and I’m sure there are people out there who are malicious or just careless about it, but there are also people out there who made a mistake and have to pay for it for the rest of their lives. Calling them unclean and judging them isn’t going to help.

/r/AmItheAsshole Thread