Huckabee on HIV in 1992: "We need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague"

[no name 1]

If gays and AIDS is important to you then don't vote for him. I think you will find the constituency that cares about that is pretty narrow. They will find a cure for AIDS soon and it will no longer be a issue for the gays.

1 million + gays is not a small constituent.

one out of every 300? that number is low imo.

I googled around but couldn't find hard numbers - the 2000 census says around 1.3....

[Reynaldo 0]

Contracting AIDS is a lifestyle choice????

[mawilson 2,133]

Contracting AIDS is a lifestyle choice????

Having unprotected sex is.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Contracting AIDS is a lifestyle choice????

In many cases, yes. For example IV drug use, unsafe sex - these are lifestyle choices that result in a higher degree of vulnerability to the virus.

[Caladan 19]

You guys are amazing. Do you remember what it was like in 92? We didn't know anything about AIDS. I think I will see if I can find some 15 year old statements made by the other candidates and see if you think they apply now.

In 1992, AIDS had been known to be the result of HIV for about eight or nine years. We knew how it was transmitted, how it could be treated, and there's really no excuse for that point in thinking it's just a disease God gave you for being gay. If he didn't know that, he was less informed than my eighth grade health class. If he did know that, then he's trading public health for some religious talking points.

[no name 1]

Being gay isn't a lifestyle choice and to me isn't evil so on that point I do not agree with the evangelicals. But contracting AIDS, with few exceptions, is a lifestyle choice. The only ones I feel sorry for in this day and age are the people that got it through no fault of their own.

That being said I am not a Huckabee supporter so what happens to him doesn't matter much to me. I doubt if he gets the nomination anyway.

Then why smack them with a label? If it's not a lifestyle choice - but something they are born with - why are you against gay marriage?

I did notice the Thompson support banner is gone.....who's your guy now?

PS: That's a lot of HETEROSEXUAL women....

As the world marked the 25th anniversary of the first reported cases of AIDS this summer, one important story was mostly ignored: AIDS is an epidemic in the African American community and it's spreading fast.

Edited December 10, 2007 by devilette

[Peikko 1,575]

I think he's referring to the multiple partners and unprotected sex/sharing needles part of exposing oneself to the risk of contacting AIDS.

However, to attribute blame to someone who contracts any kind of infectious disease is rather a strange concept imo.

[jundp 191]

2.9 million people died of AIDS last year. Someone dies once every 11 seconds from AIDS or HIV-related diseases. Worldwide though. I tried to find numbers for the US alone and couldn't. December 1 was World AIDS Awareness Day and I remember reading that in the US the highest age group of people with AIDS is heterosexual women between the ages of 18 and 30, but I can't find that stat. Still looking.

btw, that really has nothing to do with Huckabee, I realize that. Sorry.

[Alex+R 0]

Contracting AIDS is a lifestyle choice????

In many cases, yes. For example IV drug use, unsafe sex - these are lifestyle choices that result in a higher degree of vulnerability to the virus.

But not rape. Or forgetting once to use protection. (If most people who usually use a condom did it 100% of the time there would be very few STD cases at all -- certainly not the reality.) Those aren't lifestyle choices. And in Africa and many other areas, pervasive ignorance about how HIV is contracted isn't a lifestyle choice. Then there are gradations. Like being gay and feeling pressured not to use a condom. It's complicated but I don't think the judgment I'm hearing is useful.

[no name 1]

2.9 million people died of AIDS last year. Someone dies once every 11 seconds from AIDS or HIV-related diseases. Worldwide though. I tried to find numbers for the US alone and couldn't. December 1 was World AIDS Awareness Day and I remember reading that in the US the highest age group of people with AIDS is heterosexual women between the ages of 18 and 30, but I can't find that stat. Still looking.

btw, that really has nothing to do with Huckabee, I realize that. Sorry.

However, the total number of people living in the USA with HIV/AIDS is thought to be between 1,039,000 and 1,185,0005.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Contracting AIDS is a lifestyle choice????

In many cases, yes. For example IV drug use, unsafe sex - these are lifestyle choices that result in a higher degree of vulnerability to the virus.

But not rape. Or forgetting once to use protection. (If most people who usually use a condom did it 100% of the time there would be very few STD cases at all -- certainly not the reality.) Those aren't lifestyle choices. And in Africa and many other areas, pervasive ignorance about how HIV is contracted isn't a lifestyle choice. Then there are gradations. Like being gay and feeling pressured not to use a condom. It's complicated but I don't think the judgment I'm hearing is useful.

Which is why I said "many", not "all" or even "most".

[Alex+R 0]

Contracting AIDS is a lifestyle choice????

In many cases, yes. For example IV drug use, unsafe sex - these are lifestyle choices that result in a higher degree of vulnerability to the virus.

But not rape. Or forgetting once to use protection. (If most people who usually use a condom did it 100% of the time there would be very few STD cases at all -- certainly not the reality.) Those aren't lifestyle choices. And in Africa and many other areas, pervasive ignorance about how HIV is contracted isn't a lifestyle choice. Then there are gradations. Like being gay and feeling pressured not to use a condom. It's complicated but I don't think the judgment I'm hearing is useful.

Which is why I said "many", not "all" or even "most".

Fair enough.

[Caladan 19]

I don't find it useful as a matter of public health to sort out diseases into those that are contracted by worthy people and those who aren't.

[Alex+R 0]

I don't find it useful as a matter of public health to sort out diseases into those that are contracted by worthy people and those who aren't.

[GaryC 7]

Being gay isn't a lifestyle choice and to me isn't evil so on that point I do not agree with the evangelicals. But contracting AIDS, with few exceptions, is a lifestyle choice. The only ones I feel sorry for in this day and age are the people that got it through no fault of their own.

That being said I am not a Huckabee supporter so what happens to him doesn't matter much to me. I doubt if he gets the nomination anyway.

Then why smack them with a label? If it's not a lifestyle choice - but something they are born with - why are you against gay marriage?

I did notice the Thompson support banner is gone.....who's your guy now?

PS:

As the world marked the 25th anniversary of the first reported cases of AIDS this summer, one important story was mostly ignored: AIDS is an epidemic in the African American community and it's spreading fast.

I removed the Thompson banner at the request of my wife. She has some more Christmas stuff to put there and wanted the room.

I am in favor of the states deciding the issue of gay marriage. I always have been. My personal opinion is that marriage is between a man and a woman. Anything else you can call a civil union or domestic partnership if you like but marriage it isn't. If they want a legal mechanism to give inheritance rights or end of life decisions then that is also fine. But it isn't a marriage. To call it that is to redefine something that has been settled for the entire history of mankind.