It is the year of our Beyoncé 2024, and folks got on her internet to deride people for taking PrEP, by admonishing them to just “not have sex with people who have hiv.” This began a few days ago when X account @ FemK_Ultra wrote that “Realizing sex doesnt have to be this all sacred” thing, and that sex as “affection” between friends is “lifechanging.” Another user quote tweeted “aren’t we in another aids epidemic or something, y’all are seriously tripping.” This spiraled into hateful, stigmatizing conversations on X, showing that we still haven’t collectively learned from the early hauntings of the AIDS epidemic.
So, I am here to remind you all that sex with poz people is amazing, regardless of the stigma that pervades the internet, we are worthy of desire, we fuck, and we’re good at it too.
With that in mind I want to uplift Rihanna’s hit “Sex with Me” off of her eighth studio album “Anti,” co-written by PartyNextDoor, it is a song like no other, with its captivating opening to percussive sexiness, it is a riveting compliment in her musical canon reminding us that “I got the sauce.” While this song didn’t top the charts, I doubt there are many people who haven’t heard this delectable track. “Sex with Me” peaked at #83 on the Billboard Hot 100, the highest-charting song that wasn’t a single from the album.
In response to the stigmatizing noise online, that posits there is a new AIDS epidemic, let’s be clear: the epidemic of HIV/AIDS never ended. It has been ongoing for decades, impacting people of the global majority, with recent data suggesting that Latine communities are increasingly vulnerable. “I’mma need you deeper than six, not a coffin” Highlights how sex can be pleasurable when not conflated with the threat of death. Poz people have a right to pleasure without feeling inadequate or shamed, one day we’ll live in a world where serodiscordant intimacies aren’t seen as a wish for death, but an acknowledgment of how love and sex bring us together, even when societal forces render our love a contagion.
What could use our collective attention is the vulnerability of cisgender and transgender women to HIV, and that more attention and resources need to be put in the global south. Stigmatizing language online about who should be desired sexually or not, exacerbates the ongoing epidemic. It does nothing to support people to live healthy lives, and thrive towards a future when our communities are less impacted by this virus.
ABOUT THE WRITER: aAliy A. Muhammad (They/ Them) is a Philadelphia born/ raised organizer. They are the creator of Black Reverence Chair, a joy and affirmation ritual. With Dr. Lyra D. Monteiro, aAliy is a co-convener of Finding Ceremony, a descendant community-controlled process, restoring the lineages of care, reverence, and spiritual memory to the work of caring for our dead.
Leave a Reply