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December 14, 2007
HUCK ON THIS
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Say what, Huckabee? |
After this week, when AIDS advocates hear the name "Huckabee," they're going to have visions of people with AIDS quarantined in an internment camp waiting for Madonna and Elizabeth Taylor to come to their rescue. There's nothing the Update can say that Ryan White's mother, the National Association of People with AIDS and other AIDS groups haven't already told Huckabee regarding his atrocious answers to a 1992 Associated Press poll he took while running for an Arkansas senate seat. (Nothing polite that is). In case you've been off of the AIDS planet, The Washington Blade has a round-up of responses to the dustup.
Well after the world knew HIV couldn't be spread through casual contact, Huckabee told the AP that people with AIDS should be quarantined and less money should be spent on AIDS research. His 2007 nonapology for the ages—"I certainly never would want to say anything that would be hurtful to them or anyone else. I would have great regret and anxiety if I thought my comments were hurtful or in any way added to the already incredible pain that families have felt regardless of how they contracted AIDS."—sure doesn't cut it.
The irony is that only a week prior to the Huckabee controversy, AIDS advocates such as Health GAP's Kaytee Riek and the Global AIDS Alliance Fund's David Bryden were giving Huckabee tentative applause. Huck's written statement issued on World AIDS Day had some potential. It declared AIDS a pressing issue "especially devastating to our minority communities, which account for two of every three new cases," supported the Early Treatment for HIV Act, and "continued funding" of the Ryan White CARE Act. But though the plan (for lack of a better word) was vague and essentially endorsed flat-funding PEPFAR, it is the best plan we've gotten in writing from a Republican candidate-because it's the only one we've gotten from a Republican candidate. All of the other Republicans' statements on AIDS are far from comprehensive, frequently vague and like Huckabee's, don't mention sex education, needle exchange or any other science-based prevention techniques. (For more on where all the candidates stand visit AIDSVote.org).
Riek said that she wasn't surprised by Huckabee's refusal to disavow his 1992 prejudices because he's ignored science in the past. Nonetheless, she maintains that among Republicans, he's still provided the best AIDS statement. Bryden agrees, though like Riek, he was appalled by the Senator's lack of contrition. "It's great that he put out an [AIDS] statement that has a few good elements, but in light of what he said most recently, Huckabee also needs to say something about stigma and discrimination. As president he'd be able to go to countries that are abusing people and be able to persuade them to change their tune. He cannot be trusted to me on this issue, " Bryden said, adding that Huckabee must also be taken to task for wanting to flat-fund PEPFAR.
Say what?
Looking back, Huckabee has already made some outrageous but less high-profile statements about AIDS on the campaign trail. Bird-dogger Kevin Anglin encountered Huckabee at a campaign stop at a green-efficiency house in New Hampshire. According to Anglin, when a fellow bird-dogger asked Huckabee if he would support broadening PEPFAR's HIV prevention education to include condoms and other methods, Huckabee replied that abstinence is the best way to stop HIV from spreading, stating, "With drunk driving, we don't say, 'Let's limit drunk driving,' but we aim to stop it." That didn't sit well with Anglin. "It was kind of an inappropriate analogy," he told the Update. "A more appropriate one would have been with drinking, where we expect people are going to drink, so we try to limit the destructive consequences."
According to Women's ENews Huckabee has made other creatively false analogies demonizing safe sex. In response to a question about whether his religious beliefs would allow him to support global funding supporting contraception, the former Arkansas governor compared condom-use to domestic violence. "We don't say that a little domestic violence is OK, just cut it down a little, just don't hit quite as hard. We say it's wrong." Is this the down-home Huckabee charm everyone is talking about?
Where are the Republican AIDS plans?
The upside of Huckabee's comments this week is that at least voters have a better sense of how he views AIDS (and advocates had an opportunity to repudiate his view), which is more than can be said for the other Republican candidates. (Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama, John Edwards and Gov. Bill Richardson have all laid out comprehensive AIDS strategies). The Huckabee incident makes clear how pressing it is to get the Republicans and the Democrats to talk about how they plan to end AIDS. It's too soon to know what Huckabee's AIDS folly might mean for the election—none of his Republican competitors questioned him about it at Wednesday's debate. We hope they're not gambling that AIDS stigma is a selling point among perceived Republican voters.
"We need a president who will aggressively combat stigma and discrimination at home and abroad," said Paul Zeitz, Executive Director of the Global AIDS Alliance Fund. "HIV is having the biggest impact among those marginalized and discriminated against: women and girls, men who have sex with men, sex workers, injecting drug users, immigrants, and prisoners. Are these candidates ready to deliver services to all these groups, including providing clean needles to injecting drug users? Would they work to persuade countries who are reluctant to even acknowledge some of these groups exist to respect their human rights and get them the health services they need? Huckabee, Romney, McCain, and Giuliani have all left this very unclear."