American Family Association Pushing List Of AIDS Deniers — From 1991
Bryan Fischer, Director of Issue Analysis for the American Family Association (AFA), Saturday was pushing a webpage — virusmyth.com – from 1991 that “questions” the “hypothesis” that HIV causes AIDS, falsely claiming there are “serious questions about HIV as the cause of AIDS.” The site lists 78 Ph.Ds, 46 M.D.s, six people who are “authors,” one veterinarian, and dozens of other apparently uncredentialed people who apparently just felt like offering their name to this list of people who, from 1991 – 1993 — yes, before two decades and millions of dollars of research — suggest that HIV is not the cause of AIDS. Of course, the website’s URL says exactly where they are on the spectrum of crazy: VIRUSmyth.com.
Fischer, an AIDS denialist and the public face of the American Family Association — which is certified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-gay hate group on the same plane as “God Hates Fags” — actually is pushing this fatal claim that HIV is not the cause of AIDS, and decided that at 9:59 PM on a Saturday he’d tell the world, via Twitter:
Â
Scientists and medical professionals who have serious questions about HIV as the cause of AIDS: virusmyth.com/aids/group.htm
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanJFischer) July 22, 2012
Apparently Fischer didn’t have enough characters left to mention the list is two decades old, and I guarantee you that there are plenty of folks on this list who regret allowing their name to be used — assuming they actually did.
But don’t worry — you too can sign the letter. Because, anyone can. Amusingly, Bryan Fischer did not — nor did he respond to my tweet.
While everyone is entitled to their own opinion, they are not entitled to their own facts, and pushing this myth is not only a bad idea, it is a potentially fatal one. By lying about the cause of AIDS, Bryan Fischer is potentially bringing harm to those who actually believe his claptrap.
This is far from the first time Fischer and the American Family Association tried to jam down the public’s throat the lie that HIV does not cause AIDS.
Of course, Fischer was far from shy about blaming Rep. Barney Frank — upon the news of his resigning from Congress — for millions of people contracting HIV/AIDS:
“Who knows how many people were drawn or encouraged in some way by Barney Frank’s example to dabble in a lifestyle that eventually cost them their health and maybe even cost them their lives,†Fischer crowed last year.
And in January, as The New Civil Rights Movement wrote, Fischer:
“promote[d] the lethal and widely-discredited theory that HIV does not cause AIDS, by touting the cherry-picked research of Peter Duesberg, 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 today called the scientifically-proven HIV to AIDS link a ‘hoax,’ a ‘scam,’ and said that people with AIDS ‘reap what they sow’.â€
Just a few days later, Fischer, again, as The New Civil Rights Movement wrote, 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.
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
