PORTLAND -- A local man's new website that "outs" people here in Oregon and around the country who reportedly have incurable sexually transmitted diseases has people fired up.
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Cyrus Sullivan is the type of guy one either loves or hates. After contracting herpes at the University of Oregon, he put the girl who he claims infected him on a website -- picture and all.
"I ended up sleeping with her and she didn't tell me until afterwards that she had had herpes for over a year," he said. "It was an awful situation. I thought what can I do to prevent this from happening to somebody else."
Sullivan put the STD reporting website online a few weeks ago. So far, only six people from Oregon and Washington are listed on it. Most of the names are celebrities, athletes and porn stars, and other information he gathered from Wikipedia.
But it's the spirit of the site that has professor Tomas Gomez upset.
"It's whole objective is to out people with incurable sexually transmitted diseases," he said.
Gomez also said it allows people to post rumors without oversight, verification or documentation requirements.
"Anyone can post information -- I mean, you and I can post a report. And what if you're on the website and it isn't true? It's incumbent on you to get your name off," Gomez said.
Essentially, a scorned lover, an ex or a jilted friend could post that another has STDs regardless of truth.
In order to remove your name from the site medical records must prove the falsehood, according to Gomez.
But the website has its supporters, including Danielle Hagard, who thinks it's "awesome."
"If you have an issue you should probably take care of that. People will tell you about it," she said.
Megan Wagoner also supports the STD reporting website.
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"I think it's good because they should be able to tell their partner that they have something that could spread," she said.
And there are many others who do not like the idea of an STD reporting website, including Portland State University student Derek Newson.
"That awful. Nobody wants an STD but you shouldn't have people know you have that," he said.
PSU student Beau Cardigan agrees.
"It sounds kind of inflammatory telling someone to stay from somebody else because of a disease that they might have," he said.
Sullivan lives with it every day. He defends the site, saying he'p s performing a public service.
"Having to shell out co-pays for Valtrex -- that sucks," he said. "If somebody's going around infecting people with dangerous diseases, maybe they deserve to embarrassed."
Sullivan, who admits to having herpes, is not listed on his own website, though.
KGW does not endorse the website and is not providing its URL address.
The girl Sullivan lists on the website did not immediately return calls for comment on this report.
