MICHIGAN MESSENGER — “Gay Disease” Comment Proves Homosexuality is Risky, Family Group Says
The author of this article for the liberal Michigan Messenger is also a reporter for Between the Lines, a homosexual activist newsmagazine in Detroit…
“‘Gary Glenn is certainly no Christian and has no compassion for his fellow man and should be ashamed of himself for using these comments to further marginalize gay people. Leave it to Gary to manipulate and distract people with this kind of ugly bigotry. I want to know if he has ever lifted his finger in his life to help solve the AIDS crisis,’ (homosexual activist and lobbyist Sean) Kosofsky continued. …’I don’t think Gary Glenn or the AFA have any compassion for people living with HIV/AIDS. They have no interest in public health, even though they claim to.”
MICHIGAN MESSENGER
Lansing, Michigan
February 14, 2008
“Gay disease” comment proves
homosexuality is risky, family group says
by Todd A. Heywood
The conservative American Family Association (AFA) of Michigan says a gay activist’s remark that HIV/AIDS is a “gay disease” is further proof that homosexuality is a dangerous lifestyle.
In an address last Friday before the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Creating Change Conference in Detroit, the group’s leader, Matt Foreman, said, “We cannot deny that HIV is a gay disease. We have to own up to that and face up to that.”
In response Gary Glenn, who leads the AFA, said in a press release: “Before whatever dose of truth serum somebody slipped him wears off, Foreman should also publicly accept responsibility for professionally promoting a lifestyle that’s medically associated with a dramatically higher risk of domestic violence, mental illness, substance abuse, eating disorders, life-threatening diseases such as AIDS, cancer and hepatitis, and premature death by up to 20 years.”
Glenn and his allies have long opposed civil rights for lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender Michiganians, claiming that the “homosexual life style” is dangerous. The studies Glenn has often cited have been consistently rebutted or shown to be blatantly misused, however. For instance, the claim that LGBT relationships have a higher incidence of domestic violence is based on a misreading of a book on the subject. The book’s authors have written numerous letters to Glenn and others saying their book has been misused and mischaracterized.
In his press release, Glenn said he and his allies would continue to spread the word that HIV/AIDS is part of a dangerous lifestyle. “The only difference is we will now quote Matt Foreman and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in truthfully characterizing HIV infection in the U.S. as a predominantly homosexual-related disease,” he said, “and challenge Michigan’s Triangle Foundation or any other homosexual activist group to dispute that characterization.”
The Triangle Foundation is a Detroit-based anti-violence and LGBT rights organizations for Michigan. The group’s director of policy, Sean Kosofsky, said Glenn was “predictable” in sending out the press release.
“It is so predictable that Gary Glenn would misinterpret a serious national conversation about a plague and public-health nightmare, the mismanagement of the AIDS crisis, and turn it into an opportunity to shame a minority,” Kosofsky said. “Gary Glenn is certainly no Christian and has no compassion for his fellow man and should be ashamed of himself for using these comments to further marginalize gay people. Leave it to Gary to manipulate and distract people with this kind of ugly bigotry.
“I want to know if he has ever lifted his finger in his life to help solve the AIDS crisis,” Kosofsky continued. “My hunch is I know the answer to that. I don’t think Gary Glenn or the AFA have any compassion for people living with HIV/AIDS. They have no interest in public health, even though they claim to.”
Calls to Glenn were not returned.
