Americans For Truth About Homosexuality’s Peter LaBarbera has sent a letter to Michael Sam asking him to consider ex-gay therapy, citing the HIV/AIDS rate among African Americans.

LaBarbera also warned Sam that by coming out of the closet and “celebrating homosexuality as normative,” he will face “notoriety among millions of us.”

LaBarbera has previously urged Sam to seek ex-gay therapy and lamented that he was “forced” to watch Sam kiss his boyfriend on television.

Michael, do we have to tell you that, especially with your current publicity, you are a role model because of your athletic prowess, but since “coming out” you are also modeling a lifestyle that the cost for those living it, has been unpublicized but appalling—as it has for society. The troubling fact is minorities are suffering most and in growing numbers. The evidence:

• Black youth–your fans among them–ages 13-24 are twice as likely to get HIV/AIDS than those of other ethnic groups.

• 94-95 percent of all HIV cases in 2011 among boys and young men ages 13-24 were linked to homosexual sex, the CDC reports.

• Youth 13-24 incur 26 percent of new HIV/AIDS infections each year.

• An estimated 60 percent of 13-24 year-olds are unaware that they’re infected with HIV; such ignorance can be a death sentence.

• Black men having sex with men (MSM) accounted in 2010 for 39 percent of all HIV/AIDS diagnoses.

Secondary to the toll in pain and death among MSM is the drain on U.S. medical and financial resources; for example, anti-viral drugs, which can prolong MSM life about 20 years, cost over $24,000 per year. They do prolong life but must be taken scrupulously or the MSM becomes infectious. To treat an HIV/AIDS victim costs from $400,000 to $600,000 from infection to death. In total, the HIV/AIDS epidemic costs the country about $5 billion per year, says CDC Director Dr. Tom Freiden.

Believe it or not, no one is born “gay”; molestation, emotional deprivation, parental or peer rejection, or other traumatic factors can foster same-sex attraction–but many men and women have managed it, diminished it, or eliminated it altogether. [See these heartwarming ex-“gay” testimonies.] Many accomplished this through Reparative Therapy and counseling, despite the relentless, unwarranted condemnation of and campaign against both by self-serving “gay” activists.

What we hope for from you, Michael, is that you don’t make your feelings, well-publicized as they have been, your claim to fame. Your achievements on the football field will earn you a legacy you can be proud of; your “coming out” as one celebrating homosexuality as normative can earn you only regret, as well as notoriety among millions of us.