CDC Ad Campaign Targeting Gay and Bisexual Men Criticized
A new television ad campaign stating, "HIV-positive gay and bisexual men have the power to stop the epidemic," puts this population "square in the sniper crosshairs" of the epidemic, novelist Patricia Nell Warren writes in an op-ed in A&U, a national AIDS magazine. Warren states that the ad, funded by the CDC and the San Francisco Dept. of Public Health, indicates that gay and bisexual men are "responsible" for the epidemic "because those who 'cause' it are the ones who can 'stop' it." She continues, "In my opinion, the federal government wants to make covert use of homophobia, even as the CDC pays lip service to the idea that homophobia is not a good thing. The government wants to keep Americans believing that gay and bi men are still causing most of the HIV problems." Warren anticipates that the ad's message will cause U.S. citizens to be "less likely to sympathize with gay and bi men" when "the security crackdown comes" -- which may occur when military intelligence begins to hold these men accountable "for any real (or perceived) failure to act as the government demands." Warren compares this potential situation to past "security" scares involving Japanese-Americans and German-Americans, which resulted in "human-rights abuses that most American
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