Having made it through the AIDS crisis, queer people know the importance of PrEP. For the uninitiated, PrEP is a prescription medicine that, when taken regularly, reduces the risk of getting HIV from sex by up to 99%. It’s a miracle of modern medicine — so why are some straight people so upset that it exists?

The latest wave of discourse around PrEP stemmed from an entirely different controversy around casual sex. When one user on X warned another, Ava, that she shouldn’t be having casual sex because we’re in “another AIDS epidemic or something,” Ava replied, “I literally take pills every day that make it so I cant contract HIV.”

That innocuous statement set off a wild chain reaction, with straight folks seeming to think that people with HIV should never have sex, that taking steps to prevent contracting HIV is morally wrong, and that if you’re having sex with anyone other than a monogamous long-term partner, you deserve to get HIV anyway. Did these people stop paying attention in the 1980s?

One viral response to Ava reads, “You need to take pills to not contract HIV? You can’t just, not have sex with people who have HIV?” And the rest of the conservative folks replying to her are spouting more of the same.

These posts seem to be asking, why take medicine to prevent getting HIV, when you could simply never have sex? And why wear a seatbelt when you could simply drive carefully? Oh, and why have a fire alarm when you could simply not start a fire? The logic isn’t logic-ing, people.

Luckily, queer people were there to set the record straight (and to marvel at the stupidity on display).

Ava herself reacted to the massive discourse her post inspired, writing, “The quote tweets and replies to this one are crazy, straight people are subhuman.”

Long story short, enjoying casual sex isn’t a moral failing: it’s just a fact of life for tons of people. And when you have multiple sexual partners, taking steps to prevent diseases like HIV are especially important. That includes taking PrEP — no matter your sexuality, and no matter what uninformed people on the internet may believe.

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