That is the exact type of thinking that led to West Coast Asian Americans being rounded up and herded into internment camps during WWII. Based on the "what if" factor. Why not quaratine mononucleosis and TB carriers as well?

Ummmm. 'cuz huckabee has no problem making blanket statements such as homosexuals are abberant and immoral.... You gotta realize this guy is a baptist minister and has no problem saying intolerant statemnets about a segment of society. He of all should know the "judge lest you be judged" biblical reference. I know he is allowed to say whatever he wants to, but that doesnt make it OK...If he feels this way, he, as a public figure, should just keep his mouth shut.

What kinda TB are we talking about. We just did that very thing recently with an Atlanta resident with drug resistant TB.
CDC quarantines air passenger with deadly tuberculosis strain - USATODAY.com

And what caused the internment camps was NOT the same thing, fear of spying is a different motivation than fear of contagious death. If SARS shows up here, they are gonna get locked away as well.

I don't see where Huckabee calling calling homosexuality a perversion or aberrant is so far off. Where did he say something that was wrong? A public figure shouldn't be stymied on his opinion just because he is a public figure. We elect men based on their ideals and opinions. How else are we to "judge" whether or not to vote for him?

LOLs- the medical community was way off on that one, wasnt he? This guy did not have any deady strain and he wasnt contagious..

The fact of the matter is fear and mass hysteria was the root of the internments. You still dont get it. The medical community knew in 1986 HIV/AIDS was not tranmitted through casual contact and Huckabee made the quarantine comment in 1992.. Why dont you address Huckabees ignorance instead of justifying quarantining of AIDS/HIV patients?

They were off in the diagnosis, not the procedure. I don't think YOU get it.

I don't think he was ignorant. Like I said, if the patients seem to have a propensity to continue the behavior that caused their infection with the deadly virus in the first place, quarantining them might have been the best idea, even in 1992. Drug addicts aren't gonna stop sharing needles just because they might infect someone else. Why should they, they are killing themselves any way. I don't disagree with Huckabee.

Chandon, thank you for addressing my post. I do not believe I am making myself clear though.

I am NOT saying that Huckabee is tolerant and accepting of the gay community. But I am saying that though he is not, that his claim years ago to stifle the spread of AIDs was not to quarantine gay people. My understanding is that he thought to quarantine AID's patients. I do not even agree with that per se. But I am saying that his words provide a launching pad for dispeling the notion that AIDs is more rampant in the gay community. If gay behaviors are not for the most part how people contract AID's, then this statement made by Huckabee, all those years ago, surely can be used to provide the public with well-documented facts to the contrary.

To the political savvy advocates for the rights of gay people, for the respect of gay people, proving him wrong by his making the connection could be quite powerful.

Back in the year he first advised a quarantine, the facts and figures were not perhaps as well substantiated as now. Now is the time to grab the big brass ring and seems to me, instead of getting in a funk about yet another fundy-crazed politician spewing intolerance, one ought to look at it as an opportunity. For goodness sakes, use the man!

Doesn't anyone else see that?

OhDear

Perhaps you forget Ryan White when he was diagnosed with AIDS in 1984 and how the fight started about him being allowed to go to school when the CDC said AIDS/HIV is not transmitted via casual contact? I am attempting to advise this forum that Huckabee's statements were in fact ignorant, and that HIV/AIDS, although at the onset was primarily afflicted by mostly gay men, in fact is not a gay disease. Of course at the onset of any disease, there will be a class of people more prone to catching it, but as it evolves, it becomes less choosy of its victims. HIV/AIDS was already rampant in Africa in the heterosexual comunity when it hit the US in the early 1980, it was just called a different virsus. I think something having to do with the green monkey disease? The medical community knew this in the mid 80's...

Anyway, my thoughts are that whether or not Huckabee was singling out the gay community for quarantine, AIDS/HIV people are just people, and should be treated with compassion and quaratining those individuals wouldnt have been doing the right thing.

Of course you dont! You write the exact same thing all the time. Why did you even bother wasting time writing this when everybody already knows your stance? When a public figure makes ignorant and intolerant comments then they are held up to public scrutiny.

Thats the way it goes when you're a public figure....

I am NOT saying otherwise, Chandon!!!

I am simply saying that this man's words, at this time, can be a springboard to clear the record.

However, I will say that by your writing this:

Quote:

... although at the onset was primarily afflicted by mostly gay men, in fact is not a gay disease. Of course at the onset of any disease, there will be a class of people more prone to catching it, but as it evolves, it becomes less choosy of its victims.

You are in fact, compelling some to place blame for the disease on the gay people. Stating that it made its initial way into the citizens of our country, through the men who particiapted in gay behaviors.

Here is a site I have perused often, and maybe even shared the link before:

Positive Responses to HIV

OhDear