Comment: Steve Brookstein, spread some love, don’t ask why your enemies are HIV-free
Some of you will know who Steve Brookstein is, some of you will not. I say that not because he isn’t a household name anymore but because he had a brief dash of fame back in 2004 when he won the UK X Factor. He disappeared as quickly as he arrived, with about as much popularity as a flat tyre.
So what brings me to write about him? On Twitter yesterday he made the following comment:
“All those people with HIV and not one of them is called Dan Wootton.”
Again some of you won’t know who Dan Wooton is either; he’s a showbiz journalist here in the UK and does have his own fair share of people who dislike him for his reports.
That said, I ask is this enough to justify such a horrific comment? I think not. When I see tweets, comments and posts of this nature I ask myself what has happened to the world, to see people who are in the public eye (I’m loath to use the word ‘famous’ for it implies a star of some nature), that think they can come out with such bile-ridden hatred?
Sure, there are plenty of people who don’t like me and there’s plenty more that I don’t like, but I don’t go around insinuating that the world would be a better place if some of them were infected with HIV.
Can one even call oneself a man if they have that much hatred and ignorance inside them? I beg to differ. When challenging him on his uneducated and dire tweet he went on to respond a rather half-hearted attack back.
“@dfa73 look at you. So offended you’re telling all your buddies to go have a look. Quiet news day?”
Personally I’d rather stick pins in my eyes then get into a tug of war on Twitter or any other site. Some were even advising me to ignore it and that would prove a point. I ask you, how can someone sit back and view this type of abuse and NOT do anything about it? I for one cannot and will not.
It is surely a sad state of affairs when someone with pretty much no popularity, but yet one who is still relatively public, thinks that he can project this type of insidious comment without causing damage to his career.
Mr Brookstein went on to stress that he had “no interest in a bunch of gay men bitching” because they see mentioning HIV as an attack on them. “It’s not your virus”. Well Mr Brookstein, you are right, it isn’t ‘our’ virus but the very person you are attacking with your uneducated comments is, in fact, a gay man. Whether or not we consider HIV to be a gay disease; which let’s face it we know it isn’t; that doesn’t give you the right to insist on its distribution to someone you clearly do not like, like some piece of unwanted junk mail.
You will see one of his last tweets he goes onto question God’s plan. Personally I wasn’t going that deep, I was questioning his plan. Are his personal and professional life in such dire straits that he has to resort to this? I thought shock value publicity was pretty much topped by Madonna’s SEX book back in 1992.
“Now I have your attention I would like to announce my new single out on Monday. :-)”
I, amongst thousands, of others raise money for the very people who are affected by HIV AIDS, I completed the 545 mile AIDS LifeCycle last year and next year I will be doing the same again.
I do not take part in these events for the glory, for the trip or for the vacation. I do it because I care, like so many others. I do it because it may make a difference in someone’s life. I do it because it may help someone live better, live happier and ultimately live longer.
I would ask Mr Brookstein to avoid such vile comments until he is faced with someone living with HIV and understands their struggle. No one asked for this disease and no one in their right mind would ask for someone else to contract it. Steve Brookstein has sickened me to my very core. The world needs to be a better place for all our sakes; we need to spread love, compassion and kindness.
I fear Mr Brookstein does not transmit such love and I fear for humanity with people like this in the public arena. Each to their own opinion; however his opinion only belongs in one place.
This post first appeared at WingerJock.com. David Allison tweets from @dfa73.
