AIDS research requires massive gov't funding!
1987May May Gong 1987-10Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 16 →
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Any gains in gay and lesbian rights "seriously compromise the health and safety of Americans everywhere." So says America's foremost homophobe, the Rev. Jerry Falwell.
"Homosexuals are taking over our towns," Falwell preaches, "while other perverts have established gay resorts in hundreds of cities which have become nothing but breeding grounds for the deadly AIDS virus."
To the uninformed individual, Falwell's remarks portray AIDS as an invention by gay people to be used against the heterosexual population. The fact is that the gay community has suffered the heaviest losses from the AIDS epidemic.
Since 1981, there have been 41,366 cases of AIDS nationwide. Of these, 23,884 victims have died. An overwhelming majority of these deaths have been among gay men.
The government's drive for AIDS testing has continued despite the fact that the spread of the disease has come to a virtual standstill in many gay communities due to massive education programs on safe sex organized by gay organizations.
In the early 1980s, before many AIDSeducation programs were begun in the gay communities, about 15 percent to 20 percent of previously uninfected gay men tested positive for the AIDS virus each year.
But as safe-sex education increased, the rate of new infections declined. In 1986, it fell to 6.6 percent in New York and 4 percent in San Francisco. In 1987, the new infection rate has fallen to 1 percent in each of these cities.
And yet, Secretary of Education William Bennett insists that AIDS education should be carried out by parents and not the schools. The best defense against AIDS is simply "abstinence," Bennett says. "Young people, especially young women, should be modest." Carol*Simpson 1987 CENTĘ