Dear Joy Behar - Your small minded, ignorant and insensitive
comments about people with herpes could be hurtful to people who take
you seriously... both those who have and those who don't have herpes.
You ought to be ashamed of yourself and make an apology. - Rob Leder
Dear Joy Behar - your story has certainly traveled the world. Firstly,
thanks for the opportunity to give us the "SILENT COMMUNITY" a chance to
voice our opinion regarding the IGNORANT ATTITUDES that we have recently
heard about on "THE VIEW" in the USA. Like thousands of other people, I
didn't ask for HSV1 or HSV2, oral and genital herpes. I'm sure you are
well aware of the high herpes statistics by now. Australia is
reported to be as high as 1 in 6 to 8 people who know or don't even know
they have Herpes. Sadly, because of this IGNORANCE, many people cannot
face the rejection and jokes, they choose to keep silent about their
health status, and spread Herpes further into the community. Some
people just retreat and live a lonely life, while others live with
constant depression and huge emotional scars. The majority of us learn
to live with this "minor irritation", but like divorce and other
relationships, we suffer for years because of the lies and hurt that was
inflicted upon us by someone we thought we loved!! Honestly, next time you kiss someone - DO
YOU EVER THINK OF HEPATITIS C?? - I believe it's much worse than Herpes.
Next time you sleep with your partner, do you always practice safe sex?
Is your partner being faithful or honest? Herpes is mostly
invisible, we don't walk around with huge dripping sores hanging off our
genitals. Countless people, including myself, have been misdiagnosed
for years, it certainly wasn't washing powder or beach sand in my
bathers!! I'm pleased to be able to voice my views.
I hope by now you understand some of the pain and anguish that your
comments have caused in our LARGE community. - Lesley from MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
Hello - I am writing to you in reference to the topic of HSV (aka: Herpes), a sexually transmitted disease which affects
90% of people either orally or genitally or both. On your show Joy
referenced online dating ads of a couple of people with Herpes and these people
were denounced. It was said this would be a deal breaker in their
relationships and the word "loser" was even thrown around.
Apparently, little do these people know how many people deal with this exact
topic every minute of their lives. Little do these people know how many
people live with the FEAR, yes... FEAR that the topic of Herpes will come up
and people with laugh, insult, or generally show their ignorance of the
topic. It is a well proven FACT that 25% of Americans live with Genital
Herpes. It is a well proven FACT that 90% of Americans have Oral Herpes. It is a well proven fact that Oral Herpes can be spread Genitally.You do the
math. You just lost at LEAST 25% of your audience.
Not ashamed to be a strong individual living and dealing with Herpes!! -
Marie in
Indianapolis, IN
Dear Joy - I was recently diagnosed with HSV 2,
or genital herpes. I have had one sexual partner in my 37 years. We
were to be married, but it didn't work out. We didn't do drugs. We
didn't sleep around. We had sex with each other outside of marriage. Is it true that you called those with
Herpes "losers"? May I ask you why you feel that way? I have to admit I felt that way too
before I contracted herpes. I knew it as "VD". It was very
depressing to learn I had an incurable virus. One that would affect
my sex life and that of those I love. I felt suicidal for a short
while. But life goes on and unlike another well known virus, HIV,
HSV will not kill you. In fact it's the only sexually transmitted
virus I know of that won't. I have educated myself and look forward
to a happy love filled life. Instead of ranting and raging like I
know so many others who are aware they have HSV, I would instead
like to ask, if you can support someone with HSV, why is it so
difficult to support someone with a skin infection? It is not sexy I know. But for me
neither is homosexuality. But I support my long time buddy who just
came out. Why is it okay to support homosexuality, but not someone
with a very common infection? Thank you for your time... - Carl in
Dallas
