Things may be moving a little slower at The Center West for awhile. I just got out of the hospital having gone in with some chest pains and other problems. They sent me home. But, still haven't really figured out what is wrong.
I'll try to keep up as best I can. But, I hope everyone can be a little patient. Good things still happening.
The Old Man
(Mike)
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Brookings: Male kiss receives raves at SDSU
by Lawrence Novotny
Everyone is familiar with Charlie Brown and his gang. This cast of lovable characters was made popular by Charles Schultz in his comic strip Peanuts and the TV Christmas show. There is now a new version -- a theatre play written by gay playwright Bert V. Royal called Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead. This play was performed as part of South Dakota State University's Experimental Theatre on April 27-29.
Royal's play which debuted in 2004 is an "unauthorized parody" of the Peanuts gang. Royal has changed the names of the characters probably to prevent copyright infringement.
In Dog Sees God the gang are now high school teenagers trying to be cool (peppering their language with 4-letter words). C.B. (Charlie Brown) is in mourning since his dog became rabid and was euthanized. C.B. is now asking his friends if there is life after death but his friends are to occupied with there own issues.
C.B.'s sister (Sally) is bouncing from pagan to Goth. The philosopher turned Buddhist Van (Linus) has replaced his security blanket (he smoked it) with pot. Van's sister (Lucy) is still practicing psychoanalysis but in a new location. Marcy (Marcie) and Tricia (Peppermint Patty) are now slutty cheerleaders who spike their lunch milk cartons with booze. Matt (the former dirt bag Pig-Pen) is a germ-phobic neat-freak homophobe who is obsessed with sex.
The play begins on a humorous note but becomes serious when the piano playing Beethoven (Schroeder) appears. The sexually questioning Beethoven is completely ostracized by the rest of the gang because he was raped by his dad. The play ends with the gang trying to rationalize Beethoven's suicide after he was gay bashed.
The highlight of the play was the male-male kiss which was very well received by a full audience in the 200-seat studio theatre.
One of the actors said afterwards they were a little apprehensive at first because they did not know how the audience would respond. On opening night several people walked out. On the third and final night, the actors had to hold the lip-lock for at least a minute while the audience cheered them on!
SDSU Experimental Theatre and the actors are to be complemented for taking on the timely and controversial topics of bullying, gay bashing, seeking one's identity, suicide, drugs, and child abuse. The audience left with much to ponder. Thanks, SDSU theatre gang for a performance very well done.
Everyone is familiar with Charlie Brown and his gang. This cast of lovable characters was made popular by Charles Schultz in his comic strip Peanuts and the TV Christmas show. There is now a new version -- a theatre play written by gay playwright Bert V. Royal called Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead. This play was performed as part of South Dakota State University's Experimental Theatre on April 27-29.
Royal's play which debuted in 2004 is an "unauthorized parody" of the Peanuts gang. Royal has changed the names of the characters probably to prevent copyright infringement.
In Dog Sees God the gang are now high school teenagers trying to be cool (peppering their language with 4-letter words). C.B. (Charlie Brown) is in mourning since his dog became rabid and was euthanized. C.B. is now asking his friends if there is life after death but his friends are to occupied with there own issues.
C.B.'s sister (Sally) is bouncing from pagan to Goth. The philosopher turned Buddhist Van (Linus) has replaced his security blanket (he smoked it) with pot. Van's sister (Lucy) is still practicing psychoanalysis but in a new location. Marcy (Marcie) and Tricia (Peppermint Patty) are now slutty cheerleaders who spike their lunch milk cartons with booze. Matt (the former dirt bag Pig-Pen) is a germ-phobic neat-freak homophobe who is obsessed with sex.
The play begins on a humorous note but becomes serious when the piano playing Beethoven (Schroeder) appears. The sexually questioning Beethoven is completely ostracized by the rest of the gang because he was raped by his dad. The play ends with the gang trying to rationalize Beethoven's suicide after he was gay bashed.
The highlight of the play was the male-male kiss which was very well received by a full audience in the 200-seat studio theatre.
One of the actors said afterwards they were a little apprehensive at first because they did not know how the audience would respond. On opening night several people walked out. On the third and final night, the actors had to hold the lip-lock for at least a minute while the audience cheered them on!
SDSU Experimental Theatre and the actors are to be complemented for taking on the timely and controversial topics of bullying, gay bashing, seeking one's identity, suicide, drugs, and child abuse. The audience left with much to ponder. Thanks, SDSU theatre gang for a performance very well done.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
SoDAkNorml.org: Meade County sentencing hearing illuminates absurdity of the law
Bob Newland
South Dakota’s marijuana laws put Meade County Judge Jerome Eckrich in an untenable position during a sentencing hearing last Monday (April 28). He managed to handle it in a compassionate, though still unjust, manner.
The defendant, Tom Faltynowicz, a rancher in southern Meade County, had been arrested in October for growing marijuana, having been turned in by his daughter after an altercation. Faltynowicz uses the herb to manage the nausea and loss of appetite caused by the chemical cocktail he is prescribed for AIDS.
In a plea agreement negotiated between Faltynowicz’s lawyer, Joe Ellingson, and Meade Co. State’s Attorney Jesse Sondreal, Tom pled guilty in January to the lowest-grade felony possession of marijuana, for which the maximum sentence is two years in the penitentiary and a fine of $4000.00. He was in court to be sentenced.
Faltynowicz’s doctor, Doug Traub, of Rapid City is an internal medicine specialist who’s been in the business for over 30 years. He appeared telephonically to testify for Tom. He said that he’d treated Tom for over ten years and that during that time Tom’s health had improved somewhat, rather than having declined as might be expected of an AIDS patient with the “indicators” Tom’s blood exhibited in 1998.
Maintaining a healthy diet is a principal problem among patients who must take certain medicines loaded with toxic chemicals, such as AIDS sufferers and those undergoing chemo-therapy for cancer, Traub explained. “I prescribed Marinol (synthesized THC, the main psychoactive in marijuana) for appetitie stimulation. We also discussed smoked marijuana, which many patients find more effective, with less negative side-effects than Marinol. I was aware that Tom was using marijuana for his wasting syndrome.”
“Tom has plainly benefited from using marijuana.” Dr. Traub said this in a courtroom in South Dakota, under oath. South Dakota law proclaims that marijuana has “no accepted medical use in the United States.”
Judge Eckrich asked, “Is smoking marijuana clinically necessary for Mr. Faltynowicz?” "Yes," Traub replied.
“Is there a mechanism by which we can differentiate, in a urinalysis, as to whether a person is smoking marijuana or using Marinol?” The quandary Eckrich was addressing with this question is that Marinol use is banned by South Dakota probation departments, because its indicators in urine are the same as those for smoked marijuana. "None that I know of," Traub answered.
Marinol is legal for doctors to prescribe and for patients, at least those not in jail or on probation, to use. Doctors may recommend marijuana use, but they are barred from actually delivering it to a patient or writing a prescription for it.
Ellingson began to make an argument clearly based on the intra-contradictory nature of the situation, but was cut off by Eckrich. “I’m not going to legalize medical marijuana out of this courtroom today.” He then sentenced Faltynowicz to eight months in the penitentiary, suspended except for seven days to be served in the Meade Co. jail during the next 90 days; a fine of $400.00; supervised probation for a year, during which he was not to possess or use illegal drugs; and subjection to arbitrary search at any time. Generally, a probation violation results in institution of the primary sentence.
“Does that mean I can’t use Marinol?” Tom asked. “That’s not what I said,” Eckrich answered, “I said no illegal drugs.” The probation department officer in the courtroom took note.
What Eckrich had done was legalize the use of marijuana for this particular convicted and to-be probation-supervised criminal, as long as he didn’t get caught with it.
Earlier, during Dr. Traub’s testimony, defense attorney Ellingson asked if his advocacy for therapeutic marijuana was professionally difficult. “Socially maybe,” Traub replied, “but as physicians, we use the tools available.”
So do cops and lawyers and judges. Every person in the legal system who touched this case acted as if they did not believe that marijuana has “no accepted medical use.” The result was a farce played out with a pawn whose life hung, and still hangs, in the balance.
Knowing that a man with a fatal disease used a commonly available herb to sustain his life, cops, lawyers and a judge arrested him, charged him with a crime, prosecuted the crime, and sentenced him for the crime of possessing the herb and using it to sustain his life. Granted, the result was one that Tom can survive, with luck.
He’s still stuck with the same problem he’s had since first being diagnosed with AIDS twenty years ago; an essential element in his therapy is illegal to obtain, have or use. He will use it. What will happen if he slips up or has a little bad luck, and gets caught with the one medicine he can’t have under the terms of his probation?
Will Judge Eckrich then put him in prison for eight months, where the state will have to bear the weight of his $4000 per month legal medicine bill while denying him the medicine that balances the toxic drugs with beneficial appetite stimulation? Dr. Traub said in court that there was no chance that the prison system could deal with Tom’s condition.
Would a probation violation then amount to a short “life in prison” sentence?
The So. Dak. legislature needs to deal with the patently absurd characterization of marijuana, in law, that it has “no accepted medical use.” Until it does, we will have to continue to watch farcical contortions like these--that illuminate the absurdity of the law--played out in court. It is unconscionably cruel to deny an effective remedy to sick, disabled and dying people.
SoDakNorml
South Dakota’s marijuana laws put Meade County Judge Jerome Eckrich in an untenable position during a sentencing hearing last Monday (April 28). He managed to handle it in a compassionate, though still unjust, manner.
The defendant, Tom Faltynowicz, a rancher in southern Meade County, had been arrested in October for growing marijuana, having been turned in by his daughter after an altercation. Faltynowicz uses the herb to manage the nausea and loss of appetite caused by the chemical cocktail he is prescribed for AIDS.
In a plea agreement negotiated between Faltynowicz’s lawyer, Joe Ellingson, and Meade Co. State’s Attorney Jesse Sondreal, Tom pled guilty in January to the lowest-grade felony possession of marijuana, for which the maximum sentence is two years in the penitentiary and a fine of $4000.00. He was in court to be sentenced.
Faltynowicz’s doctor, Doug Traub, of Rapid City is an internal medicine specialist who’s been in the business for over 30 years. He appeared telephonically to testify for Tom. He said that he’d treated Tom for over ten years and that during that time Tom’s health had improved somewhat, rather than having declined as might be expected of an AIDS patient with the “indicators” Tom’s blood exhibited in 1998.
Maintaining a healthy diet is a principal problem among patients who must take certain medicines loaded with toxic chemicals, such as AIDS sufferers and those undergoing chemo-therapy for cancer, Traub explained. “I prescribed Marinol (synthesized THC, the main psychoactive in marijuana) for appetitie stimulation. We also discussed smoked marijuana, which many patients find more effective, with less negative side-effects than Marinol. I was aware that Tom was using marijuana for his wasting syndrome.”
“Tom has plainly benefited from using marijuana.” Dr. Traub said this in a courtroom in South Dakota, under oath. South Dakota law proclaims that marijuana has “no accepted medical use in the United States.”
Judge Eckrich asked, “Is smoking marijuana clinically necessary for Mr. Faltynowicz?” "Yes," Traub replied.
“Is there a mechanism by which we can differentiate, in a urinalysis, as to whether a person is smoking marijuana or using Marinol?” The quandary Eckrich was addressing with this question is that Marinol use is banned by South Dakota probation departments, because its indicators in urine are the same as those for smoked marijuana. "None that I know of," Traub answered.
Marinol is legal for doctors to prescribe and for patients, at least those not in jail or on probation, to use. Doctors may recommend marijuana use, but they are barred from actually delivering it to a patient or writing a prescription for it.
Ellingson began to make an argument clearly based on the intra-contradictory nature of the situation, but was cut off by Eckrich. “I’m not going to legalize medical marijuana out of this courtroom today.” He then sentenced Faltynowicz to eight months in the penitentiary, suspended except for seven days to be served in the Meade Co. jail during the next 90 days; a fine of $400.00; supervised probation for a year, during which he was not to possess or use illegal drugs; and subjection to arbitrary search at any time. Generally, a probation violation results in institution of the primary sentence.
“Does that mean I can’t use Marinol?” Tom asked. “That’s not what I said,” Eckrich answered, “I said no illegal drugs.” The probation department officer in the courtroom took note.
What Eckrich had done was legalize the use of marijuana for this particular convicted and to-be probation-supervised criminal, as long as he didn’t get caught with it.
Earlier, during Dr. Traub’s testimony, defense attorney Ellingson asked if his advocacy for therapeutic marijuana was professionally difficult. “Socially maybe,” Traub replied, “but as physicians, we use the tools available.”
So do cops and lawyers and judges. Every person in the legal system who touched this case acted as if they did not believe that marijuana has “no accepted medical use.” The result was a farce played out with a pawn whose life hung, and still hangs, in the balance.
Knowing that a man with a fatal disease used a commonly available herb to sustain his life, cops, lawyers and a judge arrested him, charged him with a crime, prosecuted the crime, and sentenced him for the crime of possessing the herb and using it to sustain his life. Granted, the result was one that Tom can survive, with luck.
He’s still stuck with the same problem he’s had since first being diagnosed with AIDS twenty years ago; an essential element in his therapy is illegal to obtain, have or use. He will use it. What will happen if he slips up or has a little bad luck, and gets caught with the one medicine he can’t have under the terms of his probation?
Will Judge Eckrich then put him in prison for eight months, where the state will have to bear the weight of his $4000 per month legal medicine bill while denying him the medicine that balances the toxic drugs with beneficial appetite stimulation? Dr. Traub said in court that there was no chance that the prison system could deal with Tom’s condition.
Would a probation violation then amount to a short “life in prison” sentence?
The So. Dak. legislature needs to deal with the patently absurd characterization of marijuana, in law, that it has “no accepted medical use.” Until it does, we will have to continue to watch farcical contortions like these--that illuminate the absurdity of the law--played out in court. It is unconscionably cruel to deny an effective remedy to sick, disabled and dying people.
SoDakNorml
365Gay: Md. Gov. Signs Inclusive Bully Law
(Annapolis, Maryland) Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley has signed into law one of the nation's most sweeping laws against bullying, aimed at protecting all students, including those who are LGBT.
The new law requires state and county school boards to develop policies that ban bullying. It mandates counseling to offered to both the victim and the bully. And it extends not only to school property but also electronic devices, including cell phones, computers or pagers.
The law makes Maryland just the 11th state to protect students from bullying and harassment based on sexual orientation and only the seventh to protect students on the basis of gender identity or expression.
"This is a historic day for Maryland students,” said Kevin Jennings, the Executive Director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.
"Feeling safe in school is directly related to academic achievement and student success. This law is an important step in reducing bullying, improving school climate and making school better for all Maryland students.”
A GLSEN survey released in 2005 found that bullying and verbal harassment is a national problem across the country.
The National School Climate Survey found that three-quarters of students surveyed across America said that over the past year they heard derogatory remarks such as "faggot" or "dyke" frequently or often at school, and nearly nine out of ten reported hearing "that's so gay" or "you're so gay" - meaning stupid or worthless - frequently or often.
Over a third of students said they experienced physical harassment at school on the basis of sexual orientation and more than a quarter on the basis of their gender expression.
Nearly one-in-five students reported they had been physically assaulted because of their sexual orientation and over a tenth because of their gender expression.
Read more
The new law requires state and county school boards to develop policies that ban bullying. It mandates counseling to offered to both the victim and the bully. And it extends not only to school property but also electronic devices, including cell phones, computers or pagers.
The law makes Maryland just the 11th state to protect students from bullying and harassment based on sexual orientation and only the seventh to protect students on the basis of gender identity or expression.
"This is a historic day for Maryland students,” said Kevin Jennings, the Executive Director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.
"Feeling safe in school is directly related to academic achievement and student success. This law is an important step in reducing bullying, improving school climate and making school better for all Maryland students.”
A GLSEN survey released in 2005 found that bullying and verbal harassment is a national problem across the country.
The National School Climate Survey found that three-quarters of students surveyed across America said that over the past year they heard derogatory remarks such as "faggot" or "dyke" frequently or often at school, and nearly nine out of ten reported hearing "that's so gay" or "you're so gay" - meaning stupid or worthless - frequently or often.
Over a third of students said they experienced physical harassment at school on the basis of sexual orientation and more than a quarter on the basis of their gender expression.
Nearly one-in-five students reported they had been physically assaulted because of their sexual orientation and over a tenth because of their gender expression.
Read more
From the "Got to be Kidding" Dept: Page One: State House candidate: Separate bathrooms for gay kids
A Republican seeking a state House seat in the land of Larry Craig advocates segregation based on sexual orientation.
Retired Idahoan Walt Bayes, 70, says in campaign literature that it is "absolutely wrong to force any student to share the same bathrooms and showers with homosexual teachers or students."
"I don't really have an answer for it," the Wilder resident told the Idaho Press-Tribune Saturday, "but we're going to have to do something if there's going to be a considerable number of our people who are going to [be gay]."
It would have been "an absolute catastrophe," Bayes said, if he were allowed to shower with girls when he was 18 years old, which is the rationale he uses to advocate such a "separation."
Bayes' political experience consists of a run for State Senate in 2004 and a run for Governor in 2006, which he kicked off with a hunger strike, holding out for almost two months until a state passed a law to challenge Roe v. Wade; South Dakota did so. According to the Gem State Voter Guide, Bayes opposes stem cell research and anti-discrimination law based on sexual orientation and gender expression. He supports challenging evolution teachings in public schools and posting the Ten Commandments on public property.
A short video of Walt Bayes, outlining his campaign platform, is available to view at the Idaho Statesman.
Page One:
Retired Idahoan Walt Bayes, 70, says in campaign literature that it is "absolutely wrong to force any student to share the same bathrooms and showers with homosexual teachers or students."
"I don't really have an answer for it," the Wilder resident told the Idaho Press-Tribune Saturday, "but we're going to have to do something if there's going to be a considerable number of our people who are going to [be gay]."
It would have been "an absolute catastrophe," Bayes said, if he were allowed to shower with girls when he was 18 years old, which is the rationale he uses to advocate such a "separation."
Bayes' political experience consists of a run for State Senate in 2004 and a run for Governor in 2006, which he kicked off with a hunger strike, holding out for almost two months until a state passed a law to challenge Roe v. Wade; South Dakota did so. According to the Gem State Voter Guide, Bayes opposes stem cell research and anti-discrimination law based on sexual orientation and gender expression. He supports challenging evolution teachings in public schools and posting the Ten Commandments on public property.
A short video of Walt Bayes, outlining his campaign platform, is available to view at the Idaho Statesman.
Page One:
PageOneQ: Right-wing lawyers: HRC anti-bullying program indoctrinating kids
Representatives of a conservative legal organization contend that a program aiming to foster a healthy learning environment is actually a Trojan horse for the "homosexual agenda."
"The Human Rights Campaign can say what they want, but the program speaks for itself," said Alliance Defense Fund legal counsel Austin Nimocks on Tuesday, "and it's designed to get kids to believe that their sex is not a biological fact, but an inconvenience that's changeable based on how they feel."
"You have the largest homosexual advocacy group in the country now attacking one of the largest public school districts in the country in order to affect the most children that they can with one blow," Nimocks continued.
The Alliance Defense Fund has written a letter of "warning" to Minneapolis school officials about the perceived insidiousness of HRC's "Welcoming Schools" guide.
"As you are aware," the letter opens, "your schools have been targeted by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) as one of their pilots for instituting its 'Welcoming Schools' project. HRC defines itself as the 'largest national gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization.' In other words, HRC represents only 4.1% of those adults (not children) in America who define themselves as either gay or lesbian. We respectfully request that this memorandum be considered on behalf of the remaining 95.9% of the population, including all children."
The letter goes on to say that HRC's program introduces controversial subject matter on gender identity and "unproven scientific theory that runs counter to American cultural and scholastic interests" to students. Nimocks and colleague Brian Raum also compare the fostering of free gender variance and expression among the "afflicted" to denying a schizophrenic access to medications.
Compiled in response to concerns from parents and teachers, "Welcoming Schools," currently being tested in three school districts including Minneapolis, offers guidelines to parents, guardians, teachers and administrators on promoting an inclusive and welcoming elementary school environment for all students, regardless of their gender expression or family configuration.
Read more:
"The Human Rights Campaign can say what they want, but the program speaks for itself," said Alliance Defense Fund legal counsel Austin Nimocks on Tuesday, "and it's designed to get kids to believe that their sex is not a biological fact, but an inconvenience that's changeable based on how they feel."
"You have the largest homosexual advocacy group in the country now attacking one of the largest public school districts in the country in order to affect the most children that they can with one blow," Nimocks continued.
The Alliance Defense Fund has written a letter of "warning" to Minneapolis school officials about the perceived insidiousness of HRC's "Welcoming Schools" guide.
"As you are aware," the letter opens, "your schools have been targeted by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) as one of their pilots for instituting its 'Welcoming Schools' project. HRC defines itself as the 'largest national gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization.' In other words, HRC represents only 4.1% of those adults (not children) in America who define themselves as either gay or lesbian. We respectfully request that this memorandum be considered on behalf of the remaining 95.9% of the population, including all children."
The letter goes on to say that HRC's program introduces controversial subject matter on gender identity and "unproven scientific theory that runs counter to American cultural and scholastic interests" to students. Nimocks and colleague Brian Raum also compare the fostering of free gender variance and expression among the "afflicted" to denying a schizophrenic access to medications.
Compiled in response to concerns from parents and teachers, "Welcoming Schools," currently being tested in three school districts including Minneapolis, offers guidelines to parents, guardians, teachers and administrators on promoting an inclusive and welcoming elementary school environment for all students, regardless of their gender expression or family configuration.
Read more:
Wayne Besen: The AIDS Blame Game
What is it about gay sex that makes U.S. health officials want to play Chicken Little with AIDS prevention and public safety?" Tony Valenzuela writes in the latest Poz magazine, where he criticizes, "The clueless tabloid and public health hysteria over man-on-man sex."
Valenzuela points to "an imaginary 'super strain of HIV to the sci-fi MRSA superbug." And, he is correct that it seems the media and society seem to always take on the absurd posture that gay sex is a mysterious ticking time bomb.
It is important to remember that gay bashing is a multi-million dollar industry. There is a vested interest by fundamentalist groups to convince the public that gay people are morally inferior and diseased, thus a threat to children, society and themselves.The notion that AIDS is a punishment from God is a staple of right wing literature.
Instead of focusing on the condemnation of unsafe sexual practices, extremist groups say that the very nature of being gay makes one a candidate for an early death. For example, the so-called "ex-gay" group Exodus International uses the Bible to justify their belief in God's wrath and fury against homosexuals."Those who practice these sins 'receive in their own persons the due penalty of their error,'" writes former Exodus Executive Director Bob Davies in 'A Biblical Response to the Pro-Gay Movement.' "In today's society, homosexuality is reaping a bitter harvest...homosexual involvement reaps deep devastation in the lives of many who practice it."
The Traditional Values Coalition has published what they call a "fact-based report on the dangers of homosexuals and homosexual behavior to children and to our society." One "fact sheet" is called, "Homosexual Sex = Death From HIV Infection."Focus on the Family offers that, "solid, irrefutable evidence proves that there are lethal consequences to engaging in the defining features of male homosexuality..."Of course, blaming victims for deadly diseases is nothing new and has ushered in some of the most shameful and horrific acts in world history.
In a recent New York Times magazine article, epidemiologist and physician Gary Slutkin (the article was about gang violence, not HIV) spoke of how Chinese Americans were once thought to be inherently prone to disease.
Read more:
Valenzuela points to "an imaginary 'super strain of HIV to the sci-fi MRSA superbug." And, he is correct that it seems the media and society seem to always take on the absurd posture that gay sex is a mysterious ticking time bomb.
It is important to remember that gay bashing is a multi-million dollar industry. There is a vested interest by fundamentalist groups to convince the public that gay people are morally inferior and diseased, thus a threat to children, society and themselves.The notion that AIDS is a punishment from God is a staple of right wing literature.
Instead of focusing on the condemnation of unsafe sexual practices, extremist groups say that the very nature of being gay makes one a candidate for an early death. For example, the so-called "ex-gay" group Exodus International uses the Bible to justify their belief in God's wrath and fury against homosexuals."Those who practice these sins 'receive in their own persons the due penalty of their error,'" writes former Exodus Executive Director Bob Davies in 'A Biblical Response to the Pro-Gay Movement.' "In today's society, homosexuality is reaping a bitter harvest...homosexual involvement reaps deep devastation in the lives of many who practice it."
The Traditional Values Coalition has published what they call a "fact-based report on the dangers of homosexuals and homosexual behavior to children and to our society." One "fact sheet" is called, "Homosexual Sex = Death From HIV Infection."Focus on the Family offers that, "solid, irrefutable evidence proves that there are lethal consequences to engaging in the defining features of male homosexuality..."Of course, blaming victims for deadly diseases is nothing new and has ushered in some of the most shameful and horrific acts in world history.
In a recent New York Times magazine article, epidemiologist and physician Gary Slutkin (the article was about gang violence, not HIV) spoke of how Chinese Americans were once thought to be inherently prone to disease.
Read more:
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