Thanks to our many readers who submitted these stories, and sorry for the delay getting this story out. Bush recently appointed a religious fanatic to his panel on AIDS policy who has called being gay a "death style" (a clever fundamentalist pun on "lifestyle" haw haw haw) and who has called AIDS "the gay plague" (despite the fact that AIDS certainly impacts plenty of people other than gays). Jerry Thacker, who contracted HIV himself from his wife (who contracted it through a blood transfusion) also believes it's his duty to "rescue" gays and turn them straight via Christianity.

As you might imagine, nobody with any sense was very pleased about the nomination. David Smith of the Human Rights Campaign said "We find him frightening. It's one more piece of evidence that this administration is focusing on ideology and not science when it comes to AIDS." Other groups worried that Bush is more interested in pandering to Christian fundamentalist influences than taking a pragmatic and scientific approach to combating the disease.

Fortunately, Thacker has indicated that he will not be accepting the nomination. After Thacker's extremist views came to light following his nomination, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said, "The views that he holds are far, far removed from what the president believes. The president's view is that people with AIDS need to be treated with care [and] compassion." Then why did he nominate this assclown in the first place?

---Nick

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