World AIDS Day - Good and Bad

(Editor's note - I redid this blog post because I wasn't satisfied with how it was written. It was a busy day and plus, I hate Mondays.)

I just came back from a very moving World AIDS Day ceremony at the South Carolina State House.

This state has unfortunately bore a huge brunt of the AIDS virus and I commend everyone who fight every day to stop this disease.

While there are good things about this day and how the community comes together, there are also bad things.

You know that I speak of our friend Peter LaBarbera and his friend, the phony "gay expert" Linda Harvey.

This is the nonsense LaBarbera has on his page:

SHUT DOWN THESE PERVERSION CENTERS? With 300,000 men dead from AIDS due to homosexual sex, why are homosexual bathhouses and sex clubs flourishing in the United States? At left is an ad in a homosexual newspaper for the Crew Club, a Washington, D.C.-based bathhouse where men go to commit anonymous sodomies with other men (our editorial comment is in red). It’s time for American AIDS policy to stop indulging and encouraging male homosexual behavior, which is one of the main risk factors of HIV/AIDS.

Of course this comes with a huge picture of a gay steamroom ad.

I guess I should be happy that LaBarbera has toned it down and not shown any explicit sex.

And he accompanies that drivel with a piece by Harvey about HIV:

December 1 marks the annual observance of “World AIDS Day.” While we should rightfully mourn the passing of so many victims, let’s get real about what can be done to prevent future death and disability, not to mention the expenditure of billions of dollars.
In short, we need to recognize that HIV/AIDS is largely a male homosexual disease in the U.S., and it is highly preventable.

Okay let's stop there. First of all, Harvey is NOT an expert of anything. She is a former ad executive who feels that God is telling her to stop homosexuality.

George A. Rekers is more of an expert than she is and that is only because he has degrees (if not knowledge) .

And then there is that problem of stigmatization:

It’s time for American AIDS policy to stop indulging and encouraging male homosexual behavior, which is one of the main risk factors of HIV/AIDS.

Notice that LaBarbera doesn't say a word about unsafe sex, but "male homosexual behavior."

LGBT behavior does not cause HIV/AIDS. Unsafe sex does, which means you can catch it regardless of whether you are gay or straight.

Harvey claims that according to the CDC, gay men are the highest at risk group to catch HIV.

Well what she is doing is contributing to the problem.

When HIV/AIDS first came into prominence in the 80s, a lot of gay men took good prevention advice as yet another attempt to stigmatize the gay community. And why? Because of people like Anita Bryant, Jerry Falwell and the rest who constantly dehumanized them in different ways.

Because of how they were persecuted on their jobs, in their families, and neighborhoods for being gay.

So how in the world can LaBarbera and Harvey actually try to claim credibility when they are contributing to this dehumanization and stigma? On her webpage, Harvey repeats every Paul Cameronesque lie about gay men from the short life span to the alleged high level of pedophilia.

And if anti-gay activism is ever included in a museum, LaBarbera should have his own wing.

If LaBarbera and Harvey are serious about fighting HIV/AIDS, might I suggest they look at themselves and their behavior.

Perhaps Harvey should eliminate some of the wild things she has said about gays molesting children from her webpage. Perhaps LaBarbera should start by not taking pictures at street fairs, but actually trying to meet gay families. Perhaps he should eliminate that section of his webpage called "Victims of Homosexual Murderers."

Maybe a total reorganization of his webpage would be in order.

Maybe LaBarbera and Harvey should try to help and stop the problem instead of contributing to it for a change.

Gay Adoption and a Sign of the Apocalypse - Town Hall feature pro-gay column

When I saw this column in the conservative Town Hall yesterday, I looked outside my door. I wanted to see what the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse looked like:

Gay Adoption: The Real Agenda

Don't be alarmed. It's a pro-gay article through and through:

The Florida ban is simple and stark. It says, in effect, that a child may not be adopted by gays even when the adoption is in the best interest of the child . That's the main reason the court overturned it: It violates the rights of children and "causes harm to the children it is meant to protect."

Those who want to keep gays from adopting think that's a small price to pay for blocking the "homosexual agenda." But then, they're not the ones who will be paying it.

Granted, the Freepers are going nuts over this (and not in a good way), but that's okay.

Anything that makes them angry must be a good thing.