Saturday, December 8, 2007

Huckabee's troubling 1990s AIDS policy idea

As he surges in Iowa, the press has dredged up some skeletons in Mike Huckabee's closet.

For instance, the former Arkansas governor supported quarantining people with AIDS back in 1992, as the AP and Politico reported.

During the late 1980s and early 90s the disease was seen as a largely gay man's epidemic, therefore, I have to think Huckabee was advocating for shuttling that population into quarantine camps.

A Senate candidate at the time, Huckabee said homosexuality was "sinful," in a questionnaire to the AP, Politico reported.

Huckabee also falsely - I think - claimed that "It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated from the general population."

It seems, Huckabee wanted to cart people off, the way some countries have done in the past to leper colonies,

According to Politico, Huckabee stands by the quarantine idea, but said he would have phrased it differently.

Does that mean Huckabee - even today, with better prevention, education and treatment methods - supports the idea of separating HIV positive people from the general population?

Someone should ask him that question, because, as reported on Politico, his idea to separate positive people would amount to imprisonment.

1 comment:

eileen said...

Ugh, Huckabee makes W look like a liberal Rhodes scholar.