June 30, 2009
ATTN Barack Obama: AIDS is DC’s Katrina

Posted at 6:19 pm, in: Uncategorized
Tags: Barack Obama, HIV/AIDS, Hurricane Katrina

Barack Obama apparently doesn’t quite grasp the severity of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in his own backyard:

In addition, my administration is committed to rescinding the discriminatory ban on entry to the United States based on HIV status. (Applause.) The Office of Management and Budget just concluded a review of a proposal to repeal this entry ban, which is a first and very big step towards ending this policy. And we all know that HIV/AIDS continues to be a public health threat in many communities, including right here in the District of Columbia. And that’s why this past Saturday, on National HIV Testing Day, I was proud once again to encourage all Americans to know their status and get tested the way Michelle and I know our status and got tested. (Applause.)

What happened to his highly publicized concern about the spread of HIV/AIDS? Two days after promoting the importance of getting tested for HIV/AIDS, while living in Washington, DC–which boasts the highest HIV/AIDS rate in the country–he openly admitted he’s working on lifting a “discriminatory ban on entry into the United States based on HIV status.”

Maybe he’s missed the ad campaign all over DC about the AIDS epidemic being DC’s Katrina, but I haven’t. I actually work, live, and ride the metro with the very people responsible for his election into the highest office of the land thinking he was going to look out for their best interests because the color of his skin happened to be the same color as theirs. Perhaps he wants to lift the ban because it will buy him a couple of votes from the gay community, but what about that other community that this ban will inevitably hurt? That community that considers him to be their brother and Savior?

According to an article published on Adovcate.com in November 2007:

Washington, D.C., health officials report that the rate of HIV infection is the highest of any city in the country. Infants, older adults, women, and heterosexual men are becoming infected at epidemic pace.

The New York Times reports that more than 12,400 people in the District of Columbia, about 1 in 50, are living with AIDS or HIV. Black residents are hardest hit, accounting for 81% of new reports of HIV infection and 86% of people with AIDS, though the city’s population is only 57% African-American.

The D.C. report also notes that from 2001 to 2006 56 children aged 13 or younger became either HIV-positive or were suffering from AIDS. Nearly all of them were infected at birth, accounting for 6% of all mother-to-child HIV infections in the nation in the last five years. City officials are alarmed by these numbers, as routine HIV testing during pregnancy, quick-result oral swabs during labor, and antiretroviral drugs can prevent transmission during delivery.

In more than 37% of the cases detected from 2001 to 2006, the disease was spread through heterosexual contact, 25% were through homosexual contact, and 13% via IV drug use.

So, as you pander to gain street cred with the gay community you are sentencing the black community to death. Here’s the statistic that should hit you the most, since this same community overwhelmingly voted you into the office and house in which you presently reside, “Black residents are hardest hit, accounting for 81% of new reports of HIV infection and 86% of people with AIDS, though the city’s population is only 57% African-American.” The AIDS Healthcare Foundation has launched an ad campaign around DC arguing that AIDS is DC’s Katrina. What’s next, are you going to end the “discriminatory” ban on donating blood based on an HIV/AIDS status. I mean, this is so obviously discrimination against gays and not a legitimate health concern.

At a time when the HIV/AIDS in DC has been called an epidemic and it has been noted that the HIV/AIDS rate in DC is higher than in West Africa, our president has decided that a ban on persons entering the United States with a positive HIV/AIDS status is nothing more than arbitrary discrimination against gays. I thought “the days of science taking a back seat to ideology were over?” It would appear to me that your pro-homosexual rights ideology has placed the science of HIV/AIDS in the back seat.