Though hurricanes and infectious diseases are both acts of nature, Floridians are not stigmatized for their vulnerability to hurricanes in the way that gay men might be for their current vulnerability to monkeypox. Officials are wary of reinforcing stigmas. Case closed, right?

Well, no, not exactly. Government officials often talk about the disparate impacts of illnesses such as diabetes, sickle-cell disease, and COVID-19 on Black Americans. Might not Black Americans be stigmatized for being disproportionately impacted by these illnesses? Similarly, might not transgender youth be stigmatized for being disproportionately likely to end up homeless? Why is it that, at a time when governmental institutions are more willing than ever before to recognize and call out these disparate impacts, officials are so wary of calling out the disparate impact of monkeypox?

Public officials seem to have the logic exactly backwards. The most important time to be pointing out disparities is when the relevant population is both unaware of them and can take personal action to prevent harm. MSM urgently need access to vaccines and public-health information to keep themselves safe. As the writer and history professor Jim Downs recently argued in The Atlantic, “As a gay man who studies the history of infectious disease, I worry that public-health leaders are not doing enough to directly alert men who have sex with men about monkeypox.”