Hate Is A Public Health Emergency

The massacre of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando on June 12 is the latest manifestation of violence as a public health emergency. A public health emergency, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), is "an occurrence or imminent threat of an illness or health condition, caused by ...an epidemic... or ... highly fatal infectious agent ... that poses a substantial risk of a significant number of human facilities...." Violence is the "epidemic" and the "health condition" is disability, death, and trauma to families and neighborhoods. So then what is the infectious agent? It is hate. And in the wake of this man-made disaster, we are left in the debris and horror of incalculable hatred. Therefore, hate must be considered a public health emergency. It manifests itself as racism, homophobia, religious discrimination, sexism, ageism, and a whole host of other injustices. Hate is not a feeling without consequence. Hatred causes deadly harm, with or without a gun. Hate enables us to judge people on who they love, how they express their gender, or the color of their skin. This creates barriers to health and wellbeing that are as violent as the damage done by a gun, knife, or bomb. It can lead to a quick death such as from gun violence or a chronic, slow, festering death that seeps the health out of our communities. Hate can be expressed through policy and can evolve into hard-to-see structural biases. We see it expressed in the ban on blood donation for gay and b...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news