Single with Herpes?
Being removed from the dating scene for more years than the legal drinking age, when an ad asking that question popped up on my screen, it immediately caught my eye. The ad was for a Herpes dating site. Who knew such a thing even existed? It makes complete sense, but still I was curious. With a great deal of trepidation, I entered the site and was met with some interesting facts. First of all the site was not only for Herpes but all types of Sexually Transmitted Diseases including HIV, Hepatitis, Syphilis and the rest of the usual suspects. All are welcome with no prejudice to race, religion, sex or disease… good to know.
The next statistic is a little unnerving. According to this site, over 70 million people living in this country have an STD. There are around 311 million people in the United States. Using numbers from the 2010 census and some real fuzzy math, if you take out children under 15 and adults 65+, it means approximately 1/3 of the adult population has an STD. And we all know some of those seniors have been popping those little blue pills like candy, so the numbers may even be a bit higher.
I felt compelled to look at a few of the inspiration stories on the site. At last count, there were over 1200 of them. The titles range from the almost spiritual “With Time Comes Healing,” to the reality check “Making Your Way After He Left You,” to the most inspirational of all… “How I Got Cooties.”
Look, living with a sexually transmitted disease is not what anyone wants. But if you are unfortunate enough to have contracted one of the many STDs out there, you can at least find some comfort in knowing there’s a dating arena where you are one of many, and not one alone.
Now for a little more inspirational reading. This one sounds good: “Oh god, is that leprosy on my….”
Lance
01/17/2013
only 1 good way to look at this….you know what you’re getting into. I don;’t have the herpy herp nor am I dating (thank God) but it I did have the gift that keeps on giving and I needed a gal pal, thsi is where I’d go.
okay, truth? creepy…*shudder*
Kath
01/17/2013
…and just think of the inspirational stories you could write.
Angie Uncovered
01/17/2013
Two things:
1. Some STDs are treatable. I wonder how many are spending money on a dating site when they could just go see a doctor for some meds.
2. Sad and scary- I believe there are something like 9 mutations of the HIV virus. One person’s HIV might not be another person’s HIV.
There might be something to the “not feeling alone” idea behind the dating site, but I hope they preach safe sex. I’m too scared to go look.
Kath
01/17/2013
In fairness, the site does offer a section for the latest news on different STDs and many of the “inspirational articles” were informative and decent advice. Can someone smash my computer if I die under mysterious circumstances, so my search trail doesn’t lead back to this, and it becomes my enduring legacy.
Angie Uncovered
01/17/2013
haha Deal. I have a friend lined up to destroy my PC and clean out my night stand. It’s only right.
Kath
01/17/2013
yes, the nightstand…
Sarah
01/17/2013
Damn, my friend moved away. I need to find another one who’s up to the task…
Kath
01/17/2013
choose wisely, my friend.