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03/26/2010

FRC suggestions: Exportation, criminalization, and now -- surgeon general warnings on literal butts!

by Jeremy Hooper

The Family Research Council's Peter Sprigg has recommended exporting gays out of the United States.

The Family Research Council's Peter Sprigg has said that gays should be criminalized:

And now the Family Research Council's Peter Sprigg is following the lead of disgraced researcher Paul Cameron, blaming gay men for the sad fact that HIV/AIDS in this country hit the G population first and hardest:



The CDC spokesman is cited as saying, “There is no single or simple solution for reducing HIV and syphilis rates among gay and bisexual men.” This is plainly false. There is, for example, a single and simple solution for smoking-related illnesses, and we have all heard it—“If you don’t smoke, don’t start. If you do smoke, quit.”



It’s long past time for public health authorities to say the same about men having sex with men.

CDC Analysis Provides New Look at Disproportionate Impact of HIV and Syphilis Among U.S. Gay and Bisexual Men [FRC]

No, no -- don't fight the disease itself. Don't fight the demonization and misinformation that keeps gay youth having risky encounters. Don't fight the idea that a GOP administration basically ignored the first half-decade of HIV/AID's known life, allowing something that might've been controllable to turn into a pandemic. Don't fight the anti-monogamy sentiments that the far-right cultivates with their constant fight against marriage equality. Don't fight the shame cycles that keep some gay folks having unprotected sex since they see their lives as worthless everyday. Don't fight any roadblocks that have been placed on the path to cure this, one of the many of tricks in Pandora's ugly box to hurt humans over the course of time. Fight people.

You see, folks, Peter's a moral values Christian. He will instead fight the most vulnerable of all populations. A population that existed long before HIV/AID's terrifying arrival, and some religious people's even more terrifying reaction to it. Because we are sinners dontcha know? Our God chose other diseases to be shotguns, but chose this one to be a heat-sinking missile unto the gay population. Ugh [::sigh, head shake, *facepalm*, vomit::]

Though there is one valid point in Peter's collective work: If rhetoric like his were to ever take hold in America, we just might take him up on that forced exportation! Insist, even.

***

*Oh, and let's not forget: The Family Research Council is not out of the mainstream. They are the ones who throw the Values Voters Summit every year, attracting major political candidates (all GOP primary contenders in 2007), scores of congressional members, plenty of mainstream media figures (Lou Dobbs and Sean Hannity in recent years), and plenty of other figures (Newt Gingrich, Bill Bennett) who are considered part of the political mainstream. So Sprigg's comments on behalf of this organization SHOULD NOT be seen as "fringe." We write them off at our own peril.

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