Should California Declare Homosexuality 'Marriage' in Light of HIV/AIDS Data?

On World AIDS Day, Accountability Needed in California

(Columbus, OH, December 1, 2008) For two decades, the U.S. has done virtually nothing to arrest the behavior transmitting most cases of HIV/AIDS in this country: homosexual sex.

In California, homosexuals are now demanding their behaviors be considered 'marriage,' even if it means subverting a lawful vote.

Let's look at California and HIV/AIDS:

1. In California, 67% of HIV/AIDS cases are directly linked to male homosexual behavior, with another 9% involving the combined risks of males having sex with males (MSM) and injection drug use,IDU (Source: California Department of Public Health--page 10).
2. California has experienced 69,000 HIV/AIDS deaths due to male/male sex since the beginning of the epidemic ( CDPH data--derived from stats on page 10).
3. In California, nearly 62,000 people are now living with HIV or AIDS (Source: CDC 2006 Surveillance Report, table 12). Applying the current trend that at least two-thirds of these cases result from MSM, approximately 41,000 infected males who have sex with males now live in California, eligible to legitimize this epidemic through 'marriage' if the California Supreme Court rules against the Proposition 8 voters’ decision.
4. California is receiving $363 million federal dollars for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment (Source: Statehealthfacts.org). As shown above, roughly 2/3 of these cases result from male/male sex, about $5900 per infected male.

HIV/AIDS in the U.S. is an expensive homosexual disease. Yet no current approaches deal with this reality.

'Males need to stop having homosexual sex,' said Linda Harvey, president of Mission America.'That means, close homosexual hang-outs, especially all bathhouses. Patrol public parks and arrest men having sex in public toilets. Stop sponsoring large public events, like Folsom Street Fair, that allow public sex and nudity. Ignore the screams of the homosexual lobby when officials do the right thing for them. Think of the lives that would be saved and disability prevented.'

If we are unwilling to do this, Harvey said, taxpayers should stop subsidizing the current phony approaches to this disease, including the proposal of the Obama-Biden administration, which does not even mention homosexual behavior.

And they should hold California officials accountable if they would presume to call homosexual behavior 'marriage.'

Saying an unequivocal 'no' to homosexual sex, along with discouraging injection drug use and high-risk heterosexual sex, should be the top priority in any honest and effective prevention strategy. And it should be the primary message we teach our youth.