Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, surging in Iowa polls in the Republican presidential race, wrote on a questionnaire while running for U.S. Senate in 1992 that homosexuality is "aberrant" and "sinful."
"I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk,"
[...]
Huckabee also wrote that he wanted to quarantine AIDS patients, according to the AP:
"If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague.... It is difficult to understand the public policy towards AIDS. It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated from the general population, and in which this deadly disease for which there is no cure is being treated as a civil rights issue instead of the true health crisis it represents."
[...]
Perhaps more damagingly, he has not warded off questions about his role in the 1999 parole of a rapist, supported by Arkansas pastors, who went on to kill a mother of three.
29 comments
Until the nineteenth century, nobody knew how exactly illnesses were spread and, in the case of AIDS, it's not transmitted by the air or any other corporal liquid except blood, semen or vaginal secretions. So, unless you play with razors or have sex with an infected person..............
"If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague.... It is difficult to understand the public policy towards AIDS. It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated from the general population, and in which this deadly disease for which there is no cure is being treated as a civil rights issue instead of the true health crisis it represents."
This may sound crazy, but why don't we just promote more condom use, especially at the highschool level? For some reason you strike me as the sort of nut that would have a problem with that and I can't imagine why. *rolls eyes*
To advocate the quarantine of Americans because of their lifestyle or sexual orientation makes it a civil rights issue, moron.
AIDS can affect any member of society. That is why it is a health issue.
Don't cloud the issue just because you find a sexual orientation "aberrant" or "sinful."
Religious hysteria may be considered a mental health issue because it adversely affects some members of society. Do you also favor the quarantine of people who make unsubstantiated claims about conversations with deities?
The reason why we don't quarentaine HIV victims is because
a) The symptoms are not obvious
b) It's only transmitted by unprotected sex and sharing needles. Diseases that require quarentaine are virulent. They spread quickly by even the slightest physical contact. HIV does not, it can't even survive in oxygen.
Uh, if this is true, why isn't he being hammered on this? Seriously.
Oh, it's true. It's not getting hammerd on yet because it was in 1992. And because it came out on Friday (the perfect place to bury a story in the MSM). And because the rich who own the media despise Democrats with the fire of ten thousand supernovae.
But "best" of all, Huckabee paroled a serial rapist because the serial rapist raped (among others) a distant cousin of Bill Clinton.
I'll probably get called a fundie for this...but in the unlikely event I contacted HIV and the government sent agents to take me away for quarantine, they would find my yard filled with pungee sticks coated in my own blood. Some of those fuckers would be coming with me.
I hope the media guts Huckabee.
Finally, ONE politician has the guts to stand up to you atheists and homosexuals. I hope he really brings you to your knees, pins you down, and gives it to you!
We need to quarantine people living with HIV because HIV is just too darned easy to transmit to innocent victims. At the same time, there is no point in showing compassion to people living with HIV because HIV is just too darned difficult to transmit to innocent victims. Can I get an amen?
This.
An internet, Doctor Whom. You win it.
"Finally, ONE politician has the guts to stand up to you atheists and homosexuals. I hope he really brings you to your knees, pins you down, and gives it to you!"
I love you, SuperChickenLunchMan.
F*ckabee? What a strange name, and dangerous hobby. Bees has stings in their tails. Ouch!
@ Big Chicken
HIV/AIDS is not a gay issue. It is one that can affect all - even you.
Uh, if this is true, why isn't he being hammered on this? Seriously.
He's a Republican -- declaring a near-totalitarian obsession with suppressing gay people is practically required for a serious candidacy. The standard "sure, gay people are human , but straight people still deserve special rights" bit is the Democrats.
Quarantines were used in the past for diseases that could be passed through the air. One of the islands in Boston Harbor was a hospital for tuberculosis patients because of its isolation and because you can catch TB from being in the same room as an infected oerson. HIV is not as easily spread. But fundies like to turn gays and heroin addicts into pariahs, even if medical science doesn't support their claims. Unfortunately, ignorant people listen.
I would rather eat glass than see this man as President. Seriously.
@BigChickenDinner:
See, now you've got me all hot and bothered.
I always disagreed with Huckabee but this is just sick. And to think, I actually thought he was better than Ann Coulter.
@xander07:
Another idea would be to get a dart gun and shoot them with darts filled with your infected blood.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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