Bryan Fischer today, via Facebook, claimed, “If HIV caused AIDS, Magic Johnson would be dead. Doesn’t even look sick to me. How about you?” Fischer, the public face of the certified anti-gay hate group, American Family Association, is not a scientist, virologist, or HIV/AIDS researcher. He “has an undergraduate degree in philosophy from Stanford University, and holds a graduate degree in theology from Dallas Theological Seminary.”
Fischer, an AIDS denialist himself, used to hide behind the cherry-picked research of Peter Duesberg, (as The New Civil Rights Movement has written before,) whose work has led, some say, to the infection and/or death of hundreds of thousands of HIV/AIDS infected babies in South Africa. Fischer has called the scientifically-proven HIV to AIDS link a “hoax,†a “scam,†and said that people with AIDS “reap what they sow.â€
Fischer, again, as The New Civil Rights Movement has written, has falsely claimed that 96% of gays are drug users, gays have hundreds, sometimes over 1000 sex partners, and again claimed that drug use, not HIV, causes AIDS:
“God’s design is one sexual partner for life,†Fischer stated. “Now, in the homosexual community, the average homosexual has hundreds of sexual partners over the course of a lifetime. Hundreds. Some of them have between 500 and 1000 and there are any number of homosexuals, and they admit this in their own literature, have more then a 1000 sexual partners.â€
…
“And we know, [Peter] Duesberg say, look we know, we can demonstrate in the lab the way these nitrites, the way these inhalants break down the immune system. And the research indicates that 96% of the people who engage actively in homosexuality, homosexual behavior, use these nitrites. The inhalants are very common.
“So he suggests that this is the cause of AIDS: it’s the rampant promiscuity, coupled with this drug use. That’s what causes the human immune system to break down.â€
These are but a few examples of how Bryan Fischer and the American Family Association are spreading lies about gay people in order to demonize and marginalize the LGBT community. And put the health of those who actually believe his lies, in jeopardy.
But Fischer is playing with fire. And, as the world knows all too well, HIV/AIDS is an equal opportunity disease.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is how the Christian right behaves. Not very Christian, is it?
For those who care to learn more, via the CDC:
Although the scientific evidence is overwhelming and compelling that HIV is the cause of AIDS, the disease process is still not completely understood. This incomplete understanding has led some persons to make statements that AIDS is not caused by an infectious agent or is caused by a virus that is not HIV. This is not only misleading, but may have dangerous consequences. Before the discovery of HIV, evidence from epidemiologic studies involving tracing of patients’ sex partners and cases occurring in persons receiving transfusions of blood or blood clotting products had clearly indicated that the underlying cause of the condition was an infectious agent. Infection with HIV has been the sole common factor shared by AIDS cases throughout the world among men who have sex with men, transfusion recipients, persons with hemophilia, sex partners of infected persons, children born to infected women, and occupationally exposed health care workers.
The conclusion after more than 28 years of scientific research is that people, if exposed to HIV through sexual contact or injecting drug use for example, may become infected with HIV. If they become infected, most will eventually develop AIDS.
For more information, visit the NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Fact sheet “The Evidence That HIV Causes AIDS“.
Â
Related:
AFA: Magic Johnson Being Alive Is “Confirmation†HIV Does Not Cause AIDS
Barney Frank Caused Millions To Contract HIV/AIDS, Says Brian Fischer
AFA: HIV To AIDS Link A “Scam†And People With AIDS “Reap What They Sowâ€
Fischer: 96% Of Gays Are Drug Users, Have Up To 1000 Sex Partners