posted July 19, 2009
In a well-written July 8 article, Mr. Bob Robertson challenges President Obama’s declaration of June 2009 as “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month” on moral grounds. While I agree homosexual conduct is immoral and this declaration illustrates the lack of faith and morals of the President, Mr. Robertson has overlooked the public health implications of this “declaration” that are equally important.
Mr. Robertson’s moral argument is based on 2,000 year old biblical facts regarding sin that are easily dismissed by homosexuals, atheists and ACLU members as religious rhetoric. The public health implications are based on more current facts that are more difficult to dismiss.
President Obama’s declaration of June 2009 as “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month” supports, encourages and reinforces behavior which has serious and adverse implications for public health in the United States. It is analogous to declaring June as “Cigarette Smoking Pride Month” while every level of government is attempting to abate this threat to public health.
HIV/AIDS, which is linked to the homosexual acts of men having sex with men, is an often fatal disease with no known cure.
According to Wikipedia of all AIDS cases in 2003 in the United States 48% were tracked back to male-to-male contact. In the United States from 2001–2005, the highest transmission risk behaviors were sex between men (40–49% of new cases).
According to the DHHS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, men who have sex with men made up more than two thirds (68%) of all men living with HIV in 2005.
Despite numerous gay “safe sex” campaigns, last year the CDC recalculated the size of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and announced that there were 40 percent more new HIV infections each year than previously believed.
The CDC also states that the infection rate among women is increasing as a result of women having sex with HIV positive men.
The major news media gives little attention to HIV/AIDS and its association with the homosexual population. Why is there not more coverage of this epidemic and its causes?
According the 2008 World Fact Book more Americans died of HIV/AIDS in the 2008 (17,011) than have died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan combined (5,054). Americans hear about war casualties almost daily from the news media but very little on HIV/AIDS and its causes.
According to CDC statistics the threat of HIV/AIDS is greater in the United States than the threats posed by both Avian Influenza (H5N1) and Swine Influenza (H1N1). There have been no proven cases of human to human transfer of Avian Influenza in the United States. The documented cases of Swine Flu in the United States (currently 37,246) pale compared to the number of cases of HIV/AIDS (56,000 new cases in 2006 and 1.1 million estimated cases of Americans currently living with HIV/AIDS). Again, Americans frequently see Avian and Swine Flu articles in the news media but we hear little in the main stream media news about the threats posed by HIV/AIDS, those in our population who have it or its causes.
American cities with high homosexual populations also have a high incidence of HIV/AIDS.
Washington DC ranks 43rd among U.S. cities for homosexual population. A March 15, 2009, Washington Post article revealed the following:
At least three percent of District residents have HIV or AIDS, a total that far surpasses the one percent threshold that constitutes a "generalized and severe" epidemic, according to health officials. "Our rates are higher than West Africa," said Shannon L. Hader, director of the District's HIV/AIDS Administration, who once led the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's work in Zimbabwe. "They're on par with Uganda and some parts of Kenya."
The American public should not be prompted to recognize, honor, or endorse behaviors associated with any disease, especially, HIV/AIDS.
A new survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that Americans’ sense of urgency about HIV/AIDS as a national health problem has fallen dramatically and their concern about HIV as a personal risk has also declined. This apathy could be fatal.
Even though the Obama administration has made the recent announcement of a five year public awareness campaign, “Act Against AIDS;” given the facts above, I believe the President by proclaiming June 2009 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month has promoted behavior that poses a serious threat to the health of all Americans.
William F. Todd
Chattanooga
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The writer's opinion is interesting. But, as a citizen of these United States, I really don't care about what other citizens' sexual orientations are.
If the writer's concern is public health, let us consider the slaughter of our good people on the highways and streets of this nation every year, especially during our revered and holy days like Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years Eve and Memorial Day! Let's cancel those celebrations first. You think that would work? I doubt it. Drunk drivers. Reckless drivers. Idiots talking on the cell phone and driving. These are 'real' public health issues.
But we praise our technology and fast cars and beer and whiskey. Let's just shut down NASCAR and the Indy 500 and Jack Daniels and Sam Adams and not celebrate that lifestyle. Naw. I doubt that would work either.
Smoking and other forms of addiction to tobacco. That is a 'real'EAL public health issue. Addiction to legal drugs. Another real public health issue.
We've got a pill for everything. Allowing our children to become obese, lethargic, brain dead, couch potatoes is a major health issue, but we celebrate that lifestyle every day.
Now when the Prez tells me he wants to set aside August for Heroin Addict Pride Month, I'm gonna be upset. But, lesbian, gay, bisexual pride month a threat to public health? Maybe it'll be an episode on South Park, but Public Health? I don't think so.
In the meantime, if any of you folks that read this happen to be gay, lesbian, bipolar or thespian and think I'm taking your side, think again. I'm very tired of all your whining and sniffling and crying. If you really want sympathy from we the people, and 'all' you want is to be able to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, stop acting like you should be treated differently than any other citizen.
I firmly believe that sex is a biological/physical/emotional act which in my humble opinion should be private between consenting adults.
Kelley Miller
* * *
Wow. I thought that we, as a nation, had gained enough education about HIV and AIDS to stop stigmatizing them as “gay” diseases. Apparently not. Mr. Todd’s assertion that allowing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender/transsexual (LGBT) individuals to celebrate their accomplishments in a specially designated month constitutes a public health concern is nothing short of offensive. The facts, as he presents them, are twisted and presented with a political bias that distorts the truth.
For instance, the group currently at greatest risk for contracting HIV in the United States is young (18-30 years old), heterosexual females. In Africa, the continent with the highest infection rate, the vast majority of cases are passed through unprotected heterosexual sexual contact, or from mother to child during birth. Increased educational programs and condom distribution in some African countries have helped infection rates drop significantly.
The only reason HIV and AIDS were stigmatized as “gay” diseases in the US when they first started appearing in large numbers in the early 1980s were because there was a high infection rate among that section of the population, in comparison to other groups.
The causes of this spike are easy to identify. One individual who contracted the disease early on happened to move within the New York City gay club scene. Because homosexuality was so heavily stigmatized and persecuted against at that time, it often resulted in frequently changing, sometimes anonymous, sexual partners. Hence, high infection rates within the community, higher risk for the disease within the community, and less ability to track down past partners to inform them and prevent further spread. If that one person had been heterosexual, it just as easily could have started to spread in a heterosexual community.
Since the early 1980s, a lot of information has become available about how HIV is spread, and this has done a great deal to tamp down early assumptions that the disease only presented in gay communities. (It is also worth noting that HIV is the communicable form of this disease, not AIDS; AIDS only presents in a person previously infected with HIV.) Some of the most widely publicized early cases of HIV/AIDS in the United States weren’t connected to the gay community at all: Alison Gertz contracted HIV through heterosexual sex, and Ryan White contracted it through a contaminated blood transfusion.
Arguably the most famous HIV-positive person is Magic Johnson, who also contracted the disease through heterosexual sex. With the help of anti-retroviral drugs, it is now possible to lead a long, healthy life, even to bear children, while carrying the HIV virus.
Some other things to consider: comparing HIV/AIDS and the avian and H1N1 “swine” influenza strains is like comparing apples to oranges. Influenza strains are easily communicated via a tiny amount of skin contact or air contamination, like a handshake or a sneeze; influenza is also fairly easily preventable, and it is *curable*. Of course its infection rates and death rates would be lower than those of HIV and AIDS. HIV/AIDS is passed via body fluid exchanges during sex, birth, or blood transfusions; it is preventable only through education and safe sex practices, and has no known cure, though many excellent treatments.
And, of course, larger American cities have higher HIV and AIDS infection rates – there are more people there in general, which equates to more infected people. Higher infection rates in some places can also be tied to the public education system – where real, biological sex education is de-emphasized, or removed from the curriculum in favor of “abstinence-only” programs, infection rates will rise.
Lastly, your assertion that LGBT Americans are not worthy of a Pride month is laughable. Like African-Americans, Native Americans, Latino/Latinas, and women, this community has long been marginalized by the traditionally white, male American leaders. It is only right that, as we develop as a society, they are granted a time each year to recognize and celebrate their community’s achievements, and to mourn past and present injustices. So much hatred and ignorance is hurled at the LGBT community every day in America. LGBT does not equal pedophilia, psychopathy, sociopathy, or disease. LGBT equals a human lifestyle, just like yours.
Sarah Moore
Houston, Tex.
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Shame on you, President Obama. You'll have to answer to the Lord for promoting the sinful lifestyle of sodomy/homosexuality.
Guy Harris
Hixson
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I don't know about everyone else - but in my limited experience - the most judgmental people I know - the quickest people to tell me what God has planned for me - the least likely to show care and compassion for their fellow man (unless, of course, their fellow man believes exactly as they do) are holding a Bible in one hand and pointing their finger with the other.
I don't know - maybe it is just me - but I thought God is supposed to be the judge - not us.
George Parker
georgeparker@yahoo.com
* * *
It certainly feels like Chattanooga is still steeped in McCarthyism. To loosely use the term: general recklessness, unsubstantiated accusations as well as demagogic attacks on a character. There is nothing unconstitutional, illegal or actionable about being gay or bisexual.
The widespread social and cultural phenomenon of being gay has done nothing but make the uneducated, look uneducated.
Get over it Chattanooga.
David Sinclair
ldsin75@tmail.com
* * *
What does announcing June 2009 as a celebratory month for the gay community has to do with threat to public health? I think many of the citizens who write these negative responses forget one important thing.
You can state all the HIV/AIDs epidemic statistics from here to eternity but having 'holidays' and 'celebratory' moments does not impact this epidemic in a negative way. Do you think that if there was no 'Gay and Lesbian' Pride celebrations that new cases of HIV/AIDS would decrease and, in the reverse, if these celebrations continue there would be a rise in new HIV/AIDs cases or people wanting to be homosexuals.
Use logic sometimes instead of flawed human emotions without the benefit of intellect.
Lack of control of human sexual behavior coupled with the lack of education is what contributes mostly to the spread of this syndrome and other sexual transmitted diseases. It is almost like citizens are stating that "Homosexuality equals HIV." That they are one in the same.
HIV infection may represent a higher percentage among homosexuals but it exist in all facets of life. Did homosexuality exist before the on-set of HIV? Yes, of course it did; even before the earthly time of Christ.
If you want to discuss anything, discuss the biblical implications of homosexuality...and while you at it, lets discuss the other many sins that the bible also list as wrong in the eyes of the Lord. I read many versus/scriptures that list various sins that will lead to destruction and let me tell you - the list is pretty broad.
So, we or you may not be homosexuals and may be easy for us to hold our bibles and point the finger; but how many of us are fornicators, whoremongers, sorcerers, adulterers, murderers, drug and alcohol abusers, liars, slanderers, guilty of false witnessing, idolaters, unbelieving, fearful, cowardice, and abominable to name a few.
Now, you may not be homosexual (good for you), but pick out one of the other sins of which you may be guilty. And then ask yourself if you would be any less guilty in the eyes of the Lord. We all will have to answer to the Lord for a long list of things.
Will you be found guiltless just because you happened not to be a homosexual? And then again, who made you the judge. Only one Judge who will judge in righteousness...thank goodness it will not be one of you bible carrying imperfect hypocrites.
Now, I feel that President Obama's declaration of June 2009 as "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month" is only an act to make aware that our wonderful nation is made up of a variety of different cultures and belief.
I don't feel it is Obama's way of saying yea or nay to homosexuality, but it is a part of our society. They are equal tax paying citizens. We may or may not agree with the homosexual lifestyle itself and that is your right. But do not discriminate or be hateful. If you feel you are right then rebuke the 'act' not the person (as Christ would do).
However, if anyone who has really studied Gay Pride Month /celebrations would discover, this celebration is one of many to support awareness and cohesiveness and equality for all people - whether gay or straight.
They also support education against HIV/AIDs and offer many programs of education as well as resources to other organizations who also support anti AIDs/HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
In short, to fight against HIV/AIDs and other STDs, does not mean to fight against human beings or celebrations of lifestyle. Remember - God did not bring nor create HIV as punishment for homosexuality. Nor did he create gonorrhea, syphilis, herpes as punishment against heterosexuals.
James Kirk
East Ridge
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I think the pro-gay responses here miss the point. Humans are not free to do whatever they want. We are all accountable to God because He is the creator. He sets the moral code and law. Their real response is that they do not feel accountable to God or any set of morality but their own and of their choosing. As good as it sounds, it just does not work that way.
Men are not free to sleep around on their wives. Women are not free to abort their babies just because they choose to do so. There are always consequences for bad behavior and poor choices. Guess what? If a person never deviates outside of what the Bible calls moral behavior there is no unwed pregnancy, no AIDS, no sexually transmitted diseases, etc. Go outside of these norms and those can be consequences for poor choices. ( Now before I hear from Code Pink, I know there are rare cases involving blood transfusions but we are not talking about those issues right now).
So what did we learn today class? God sets the rules and when humans live inside those rules there are fewer consequences. When you deviate from them that is when you find trouble. Big trouble. Now go out there and make good choices, at least good ones from God’s point of view. His is the only one that matters
Johnny Franks
seechatt@yahoo.com
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I listen to tattle-telling all day long from my kids and something I'm trying to teach them, as well as myself, is "take care of you." Worry about yourself and your behavior, not the behavior of others.
If you don't wish to have sex with someone of the same sex, then by all means, don't.
We have one life we're born into, and worrying incessantly about people whose opinions and actions aren't the same as ours is just plain wasting time.
Take care of you.
Ann-Marie Fitzsimmons
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