It's cruel. It's ignorant. It's self-defeating. It isn't even cost-effective. In Cumberland County, which is tied with Guilford for the distinction of ranking fourth in the number of deaths from HIV and AIDS, it would cause suffering for no defensible reason.
If you think any of that will elicit a retraction from state Rep. Larry Brown of Kernersville, good luck to you.
Brown, who last year referred to gays as "queers" and "fruitloops" in an e-mail circulated within the hallowed halls of the people's House, wants to withhold public money from adults with the disease. He says they're welcome to find insurance on their own, but should get no subsidies because their lifestyles are "degenerate."
It is not possible to have a poorer grip on reality.
Never mind cruelty. Begin with a couple of tired, false assumptions: (1) all adults with HIV or AIDS are homosexuals; and (2) punishing people with illness or death for their perceived moral shortcomings is a proper exercise of civil government power.
Self-defeating? False economy? For many, losing insurance is tantamount to losing the medicine that controls the disease. And as Troy Williams, chairman of the Cumberland County HIV Task Force, noted, these patients will head for the emergency room, where Rep. Brown's $14 million saving would quickly be wiped out.
Gay-baiting plainly is part of Brown's repertoire, so expect no help there. But those of a more humane inclination, as well as taxpayers who can see where their own interests lie, should demand that Brown's colleagues keep him on a short leash
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