Posted by
Wes Fowler on Tuesday, December 09, 2008 10:08:03 AM
World AIDS Day was December 1st. It's one of those "awareness holidays", like Breast Cancer Awareness (which has 2 "holidays": the entire month of October and Mothers Day), Autism Awareness, blah blah blah. I don't pay much attention to it, since we seem to be "winning the war". Transmissions are way down. We know a lot more about it today than we did in 1980. Treatments for it are eassier to access and cheaper. I usually just let this day pass by.
When I was reading Newsbusters today, I had to re-think . I read
Tim Graham's column . It was about CNN spreading the fears about AIDS. Tim was exactly right about CNN's coverage.
Tim's opening paragraph was a little disturbing:
Monday was World AIDS Day, and one standard item of media bias every year is lamenting how some people still persist in thinking "AIDS is a gay disease," or a disease acquired by intravenous drug users – in short, often acquired by behavior, not by chance. This is not an ideological argument. It’s a medical fact.
So, it's a medical fact that AIDS is a gay disease???
I commented on Tim's article that by saying AIDS is caused by behavior (which is true), it sounds like he's implying that AIDS is God's Curse to gays. The phrase "caused by behavior" when used by politicians in the 1980's raised red flags to those fighting to raise awareness. It seems like it's being implied that those with AIDS either deserve it or are innocent victims who got it from a "sinner".
Tim may not have meant that interpretation, but folks making comments on the article online sure did. There's a wide array of insults and Bible verses in that section. I hate discussing gay rights on conservative blogs. People I agree with 100% of the time on all other issues seem to turn into unhinged name-callers , and worse.
Lots of gays seem
unhinged and insane , but those are the self-appointed elites. (The "Jesse Jackson"s and "Charlie Rangel"s of the community.) Don't take out legitimate frustration and anger at these"No on Prop 8" mobs on people who have AIDS.