When I first saw the Drudge article that Rolling Stone was going to release an article that asserted that 25% of new HIV infections are intentional, I posted that I was skeptical of the figure but said:

One thing is certain to come from this, regardless of whether this claim is fully refuted: fundies are going to use this report to further justify their hatred of men who have sex with men, and far-right-wing nutjobs are going to use this report to excuse cutting back HIV and AIDS funding for research and care; they'll claim the money will just be wasted because those infected with HIV deserve it since they're all out trying to become infected.

Well the claim was totally refuted, first here on morons.org, then by Newsweek a day later, followed by an excellent article by Andrew Sullivan on Salon.com.

Still, despite the suspicious nature of the fact itself, the infamous "Traditional Values Coalition" was quick to latch on with their own spin: Estimated 25% Of Homosexual Males Seek To Be Infected With HIV. Note that even the Rolling Stone article didn't make that claim (their claim was that 25% of new HIV infections are intentional, not that 25% of gay men seek out HIV; there's a huge difference here).

In their semi-literate article on the subject, the Traditional Values Coalition says,

Freeman interviewed Dr. Bob Cabaj, a homosexual and director of behavior-health services for San Francisco County about bug chasing. According to Cabaj, bug chasers account for as many as 25% of all new HIV infections. Cabaj also told Freeman that most AIDS [sic] are involved in an active cover-up of bug chasing. "They're in denial of this issue. This is a difficult issue that dredges up some images about gay men that they don t want to have to deal with. They don't want to shine a light on this topic because they don't want people to even know that this behavior exists."

Exactly why Dr. Cabaj's sexual orientation is important isn't clear (I had no idea that Cabaj is gay, nor did I care because I never thought it could be relevent). The "Traditional Values Coalition" is quick to do exactly what I said these radical Christian Supremacist groups would do, and generalizes the behaviour of a tiny percentage of people onto the whole gay community, saying:

This article exposes the truth about many AIDS groups and about the irresponsible sexual behaviors of homosexuals. TVC has been urging Congress for several years now to defund such groups as the Stop AIDS Project because its programs actually encourage AIDS infections.

BANG on! EXACTLY what I said they would do! I hate to burst their bubble (well, no I don't really) but this article doesn't expose "truth" about anything. That's been established by this site, by Newsweek, and in great detail by Andrew Sullivan in his article on Salon.com. Now I'm sure the "Traditional Values Coalition" would be happy to discredit Sullivan and me because we're homosexuals... but then they'd have to explain why they believed the misquote from Dr. Cabaj (who we now know is homosexual thanks to the TVC), and they'd have to come up with a better excuse as to why Newsweek is wrong, but Rolling Stone isn't. Presumably both are "liberal media" or whatever.

Now that the TVC has latched onto the lie, we can be sure that the "Family Research" Council, Focus on the "Family", and the American "Family" Association won't be far behind, even though this story is already widely discredited. They're so ravenous for a story they can use to smears gays that they won't even perform the simplest checks for corroboration or validity.

---Nick

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