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FRC Continues To Perpetuate Myth About Military Risk Of HIV/AIDS If DADT Repealed

07/28/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
The Family Research Council wants to make absolutely sure that America’s soldiers are in danger and to make absolutely sure that our government is burdened with the continued cost of replacing perfectly good military personnel because of their illogical and discredited beliefs that homosexuality is wrong. The bigots at the FRC, lead by Tony Perkins, has joined with the Religious Right Prop 8 network to go on the offensive against the Defense Authorization Bill because it includes language that would repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Among the Religious Right Prop 8 network is TheCall’s Lou Engle, who is busy making sure that the families of servicemembers are bombarded with anti-LGBT propaganda at the churches in the areas that they live.

The FRC-sponsored webcast is spearheaded by Dr. Robert Labutta. Of course, another so-called FRC expert in homosexuality, Dr. George Rekers, was recently outed as enjoying rather erotic massages from young men. The “Mission Compromised: How The Military Is Being Used To Advance A Radical Agenda” webcasts also includ the likes of Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma and Representative Todd Akin of Montana. Labutta is a retired US Army Colonel. The FRC’s Tony Perkins, on Tuesday, talked to Labutta about the health implications of repealing DADT.

The FRC relies upon the old canard of there being greater risk of HIV/AIDS with regards to the open service of lesbian and gay service personnel of course failing to note that all military personnel are suppose to undergo HIV/AIDS testing regularly and, if they test positive, they are discharged on medical grounds. They also fail to notice that many heterosexuals catch HIV/AIDS. The way this would work is that Perkins would ask a question, and Labutta would answer.

“Q. What are the health implications if the law is changed to allow open homosexuality in the military?

Homosexuals are identified by the U.S. government as a cohort at high risk for sexually transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS. At the National HIV Prevention Conference in August 2009, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that AIDS is 50 times more common in men who have sex with men (homosexuals and bisexuals) than in other populations. HIV is already a threat to military readiness–although HIV-positive recruits are excluded from the military, those who become HIV-positive while serving cannot be discharged, but they also cannot be deployed overseas. However, this is far from the only health risk to homosexuals.

One of the nation’s leading AIDS researchers, Ronald Stall, has declared, “It may be a fallacy to say that HIV is the dominant, most dangerous and most damaging epidemic among gay men in the United States today. There are at least four other epidemics occurring among gay men that are intertwining and making each other worse. This is called a syndemic.” The “four other epidemics” are “substance abuse, partner violence, depression and childhood sexual abuse.”

Of course, the FRC falls back upon the nonsensical research created by George Rekers in order to support his own self-loathing belief that homosexuality is wrong, and includes things like substance abuse, partner abuse, depression and childhood sexual abuse in their rant. Of those two, only substance abuse and depression are abnormally high among lesbians and gays, but the partner abuse is in line with heterosexual numbers and child sexual abuse by lesbians and gays falls into such a small number that it is laughable to include it within this discussion. Of course, they want to believe that lesbians and gays molest children in higher numbers than heterosexuals do because they want to demonize those they feel are sinful. Due to homophobia like that perpetuated by the FRC, substance abuse and depression are common among lesbians and gays, but that is also the same for any minority. Keeping DADT in place only perpetuates those risks rather than diminishes them.

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