Brown’s discussion regarding HIV and the gay community came at a sensitive time, in the wake of so many LGBTQ suicides. As an elected official, he has a responsibility to his citizens. Frankly, he is failing them. Equating HIV to the gay community is not only ignorant, it's dangerous.
Katherine Foster, the president of AIDS Care Service in Winston-Salem, called Brown's remarks "fiscally and socially irresponsible." She said the remarks highlight "his ignorance on this major public-health issue."
"What Representative Brown can't seem to get through his mind is that HIV disease … affects individuals regardless of age, race and sexual orientation," Foster said. "Without funding for HIV, the disease is at risk for reaching pandemic levels, just as it has in countries that do not provide government funding for HIV-AIDS."
It serves Americans well to be informed about our elected officials, inform others, speak up, and actually vote. Brown is a dangerous example of what can happen if we don’t. Beyond the HIV epidemic health risks, how can our LGBT youth move beyond self-hatred when our elected officials are connecting homosexuality to choice, HIV, health care, drug abuse and ultimately insulting the small part their identity that has finally shown some clarity?
No comments:
Post a Comment