BUSH CELEBRATES 25 YEARS OF AIDS WITH GAY BASHING PEP RALLY

Earlier today, a commentator on National Public Radio (NPR) made the following comment:

"Twenty-five years ago today a government report announced that five homosexual  men had contracted what was then described as an unusual form of pneumonia. Within weeks dozens more cases of AIDS had been reported. Today, ten of millions of people around the world have been infected by HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Everyone I know knows somebody who's been killed by AIDS -- those of us who've worked at NPR for many years remember the late Akili Tyson, a wonderful, charming, self-effacing angel of a man who sometimes sat inside his closet sized editing booth screaming in AIDS-related pain. He is gone now. We all miss him.

...this past Saturday, in the midst of all the AIDS coverage, the president could have spoken of AIDS in his weekly radio address. But he didn't. Instead, he told the nation why he thinks gay marriages should be illegal in the United States.

It is not my job to judge the merits of that speech, but I would be lying if I didn't admit that the speech seemed badly timed to me. When it aired I was mourning the dead."

Listening to this I realized that we've all--at least I did--overlooked the fact that on the 25th Anniversary of AIDS, our President is holding a pep rally on the lawn of the White House to support a constitutional amendment to deny tens of millions of Americans their full civil rights.

Among the groups invited to the President's anti-gay pep rally?  The heads of Exodus International, the leading ex-gay organization.  This will be their first invitation to the White House.  The President and first lady would not meet with gay families at the Easter Egg Roll but they are welcoming the leaders of the ex-gay movement.  My horrified factor just went through the roof.

Comments

[Mike]

I just attended a press conference at City Hall in West Hollywood. City Council Member John Duran started his speech by pointing out that it is shameful our president has chosen today, a somber commemoration of the onset of an epidemic that has affected the lives of millions of people around the world, as a time to discriminate against a community of people that are particularly impacted by this disease.

[Bill]

Send your letters to the editor to your local paper, and also to USA TODAY on this issue (they have 6 million readers) at [email protected] (include name, address and phone number for verification).

[Harlequin]

Is it just me or is the Exodus Project really ironically named? Exodus the Project suposedly cures gays, Exodus the Book talks about people fleeing persecution and torment only to arrive at the promised land and be barred from entry.

The more I see of fundamentalist Christianity (Churchianity I like to call it), the more I realize they never read the friggin' book anymore.

[Account Deleted]

Your contrast of Akili Tyson's humanity with the inhumanity of Exodus is apt.

Sadly, it seems that Exodus has no moral conscience.