# Fine day for persecuting gays: Bush, "deathstyle" gay basher, and sodomy laws **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 24, 2003, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-day-for-persecuting-gays-bush-deathstyle-gay-basher-and-sodomy-laws/150697 "2003-01-24T20:33:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Apos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-day-for-persecuting-gays-bush-deathstyle-gay-basher-and-sodomy-laws/150697/21 "2003-01-25T03:05:51Z")
—Jerry Thacker’s selection to an AIDS panel must have appeared reasonable to the person who selected him, because Thacker and his wife both are HIV positive.— I suppose your theory, then, is that the administration just looked in the phonebook under “wife gave him AIDS after a bad transfusion”? Give me a break: Thacker’s opinions were not a secret. They weren’t from some obscure interview he gave to Southern Partisan magazine after which he denied knowing what sort of publication it was. He’s a Bob Jones grad/ex-teacher whose political occupation is lobbying on behalf of these views. He is active within the homosexual “recovery” movement. He believes homosexuality to be a mental illness. His own standard story about the transfusion always references his fear of the disease tainting him with the sin of homosexuality. I mean, it wasn’t a secret: they were his advertised qualifications! ---
**Author:** ![Hermann\_Cheruscan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b782af/32.png) [@Hermann\_Cheruscan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermann_Cheruscan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-day-for-persecuting-gays-bush-deathstyle-gay-basher-and-sodomy-laws/150697/22 "2003-01-25T03:26:55Z")
> [@](#): > > Here’s a bit more about Mr. Thacker. He’s called AIDS a “gay plague” Well, when AIDS first came out in the late 1970s, it was originally called GRID, for Gay Related Immunodeficiency Disease. Thats because all of the original cases in this country were seen in homosexuals who practiced anal sex. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-day-for-persecuting-gays-bush-deathstyle-gay-basher-and-sodomy-laws/150697/23 "2003-01-25T04:02:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hermann Cheruscan \* > \*\*Well, when AIDS first came out in the late 1970s, it was originally called GRID, for Gay Related Immunodeficiency Disease. Thats because all of the original cases in this country were seen in homosexuals who practiced anal sex. \*\* Perhaps, but I hope you weren’t arguing that this somehow excuses such appalling ignorance in 2003, especially given the post just previous to yours… ---
**Author:** ![Sterra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@Sterra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sterra)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-day-for-persecuting-gays-bush-deathstyle-gay-basher-and-sodomy-laws/150697/24 "2003-01-25T04:11:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by december \* > \*\*His biography [here](http://www.rightideas.us/about.asp?flag=jerry) makes him sound like an ideal member of a Presidential AIDS panel – an AIDS sufferer, who is an expert in marketing, has written a book about AIDS, who does work in AIDS prevention, and whose message has been presented in churches, pastor’s seminars, at private and public school assemblies, for civic groups and on college campuses. However, I’m very glad he’s off the panel. \*\* It also said that he worked at Bob Jones. Presumably they would look at articles like [this](http://216.239.37.100/search?q=cache:_YS_dB955JUC:www.bju.edu/resources/chapel/archives/chap0109.xml+site:www.bju.edu+homosexuality&hl=en&ie=UTF-8%5B/url)\* when researching him. \*scroll down to the highlighted part. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-day-for-persecuting-gays-bush-deathstyle-gay-basher-and-sodomy-laws/150697/25 "2003-01-25T04:16:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hermann Cheruscan \* > \*\*Well, when AIDS first came out in the late 1970s, it was originally called GRID, for Gay Related Immunodeficiency Disease. Thats because all of the original cases in this country were seen in homosexuals who practiced anal sex. \*\* 1. GRID first appeared as an acronym in te early 1980s. 2. Actually, it happens without anal sex, and not all the early cases in the US were gay men. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-day-for-persecuting-gays-bush-deathstyle-gay-basher-and-sodomy-laws/150697/26 "2003-01-25T04:32:16Z")
Without endorsing his views, it seems to me that a fundamentelist suffering from the virus is a good choice for this committee. I would think that we’d want the actions of this panel to have as wide an audience and as broad an encorsement as possible. Thacker being HIV positive sends a message to the pious in their pulpits about the nature of this disease that effects us all. Exlcuding him becuase he represents groups that we don’t like and attitudes we don’t endorse is a bad idea. This isn’t about exclusion or ideology, at least IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Hermann\_Cheruscan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b782af/32.png) [@Hermann\_Cheruscan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermann_Cheruscan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-day-for-persecuting-gays-bush-deathstyle-gay-basher-and-sodomy-laws/150697/27 "2003-01-25T05:55:07Z")
> [@](#): > > 1. GRID first appeared as an acronym in te early 1980s. > > 2. Actually, it happens without anal sex, and not all the early cases in the US were gay men. What the heck! Late 70s, Early 80s? I was a kid then! I knew it was around that era. And of course not all of the early cases were homosexual men. But most of them were. Lets not forget Patient Zero. He was the homosexual flight attendent who was traced to many of the original AIDS cases in the US. Evidently, he even coined a phrase for the disease, “gay cancer”. According to the reports, he would have anal sex with other, unwitting men. And then, when they were done, he would turn on the lights and point out the sores on his body and say “I’ve got the gay cancer, and now you have it too”. [http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/from\_redirect/0,10987,1101871019-145257,00.html](http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/from_redirect/0,10987,1101871019-145257,00.html) ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-day-for-persecuting-gays-bush-deathstyle-gay-basher-and-sodomy-laws/150697/28 "2003-01-25T06:26:47Z")
I give it until the '04 elections. If there’s not some major changes around here I’m headed north to Canada. Beady eyes and floppy heads be damned! On a more serious note though: What a fucking pack of barbarians. It never ceases to amaze me how we can let such an immoral and reprehensible group of subhumans “govern” us. ---
**Author:** ![grendel72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/91b2a8/32.png) [@grendel72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grendel72)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-day-for-persecuting-gays-bush-deathstyle-gay-basher-and-sodomy-laws/150697/29 "2003-01-25T06:41:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cisco \* > \*\*On a more serious note though: What a fucking pack of barbarians. It never ceases to amaze me how we can let such an immoral and reprehensible group of subhumans “govern” us. \*\* Why don’t you listen to **Scylla** , obviously you’re just being a mean spirited bigot to discriminate against someone based only on the fact that they are an ignorant hate filled piece of shit who would gladly discriminate against you. Never mind that the statements the guy made make me doubt he cares about protecting the “bad people.” ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-day-for-persecuting-gays-bush-deathstyle-gay-basher-and-sodomy-laws/150697/30 "2003-01-25T06:58:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scylla \* > \*\*Without endorsing his views, it seems to me that a fundamentelist suffering from the virus is a good choice for this committee. I would think that we’d want the actions of this panel to have as wide an audience and as broad an encorsement as possible. > > Thacker being HIV positive sends a message to the pious in their pulpits about the nature of this disease that effects us all. Exlcuding him becuase he represents groups that we don’t like and attitudes we don’t endorse is a bad idea. > > This isn’t about exclusion or ideology, at least IMO. \*\* I don’t know, **Scylla** , I think you’re being much too confident in the belief that there would be some sort of unspoken, secondary message sent by the appointment that’s stronger than the statements that Thacker has said “out loud,” statements that there is no evidence of him actually repudiating. The stronger message, IMO, whether true or not, is that the administration agrees with this characterization of gay AIDS sufferers, and would form policy recommendations accordingly. And I believe that those attitudes are relevant, since this position would give him quite a bit of influence over the very people he seems to so dislike. I think that’s a much more important consideration than the (again) unspoken message you talk about. And I’d like to ask the question asked in a similar thread elsewhere: if, as Ari Fleischer says, President Bush finds Thacker’s POV to be so abhorrent, why was he appointed in the first place? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-day-for-persecuting-gays-bush-deathstyle-gay-basher-and-sodomy-laws/150697/31 "2003-01-25T14:17:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hermann Cheruscan \* > \*\*Well, when AIDS first came out in the late 1970s, it was originally called GRID, for Gay Related Immunodeficiency Disease. Thats because all of the original cases in this country were seen in homosexuals who practiced anal sex. \*\* During the first polio epidemic, it was called “infantile paralysis” because it was thought that only children got it. If “God” created GRID to kill gays, “God” must have wanted chldren to be paralysed and even die from infantile paralysis. ---
**Author:** ![ElwoodCuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/edb3f5/32.png) [@ElwoodCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElwoodCuse)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-day-for-persecuting-gays-bush-deathstyle-gay-basher-and-sodomy-laws/150697/32 "2003-01-25T17:07:19Z")
Isn’t there a pending Supreme Court case that could get all the state sodomy laws overturned? I thought I read something about that recently, maybe even on this board. It was something to the effect that state legislatures will never get around to officially repealing these laws, so the SC could spare them the trouble if they ruled a certain way in this one case. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-day-for-persecuting-gays-bush-deathstyle-gay-basher-and-sodomy-laws/150697/33 "2003-01-25T18:48:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scylla \* > \*\*Without endorsing his views, it seems to me that a fundamentelist suffering from the virus is a good choice for this committee. I would think that we’d want the actions of this panel to have as wide an audience and as broad an encorsement as possible. > > Thacker being HIV positive sends a message to the pious in their pulpits about the nature of this disease that effects us all. Exlcuding him becuase he represents groups that we don’t like and attitudes we don’t endorse is a bad idea. > > This isn’t about exclusion or ideology, at least IMO. \*\* But is it worth having this expanded “audience” if the message coming from the Commission is compromised as a result? How much good is it going to do people living with HIV/AIDS if one of the key messages coming from a member of this Commission is little more than anti-gay ranting? The fact is that even if the others on the Commission don’t agree with him, he can still make pronouncements that will be believed by many to speak for the Commission as a whole, simply by virtue of his membership. We have, thankfully, largely left behind the idea that there are “good” HIV/AIDS victims (blood transfusions, Magic Johnson, etc.) and “bad” HIV/AIDS victims (homosexuals, drug users). Having a guy like this on the Commission would do much to help reinstate this ridiulous categorization, if his record is any indication. I don’t deny the guy the right to his prejudices. He can think and say whatever he likes, no matter how ignorant. But, in a country with so many HIV+ people, does this particular individual really need to be one of the 35 or so who serve on the Presidential Advisory Commission? I for one am glad he’s not going to be on it. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-day-for-persecuting-gays-bush-deathstyle-gay-basher-and-sodomy-laws/150697/34 "2003-01-26T02:45:01Z")
> [@](#): > > He was the homosexual flight attendent who was traced to many of the original AIDS cases in the US. Evidently, he even coined a phrase for the disease, “gay cancer”. Let’s clean this little canard up, shall we? Although there was a person referred to as “Patient Zero”, he was not taken to be the unique source of HIV; he was merely the subject of an epidemiological study by the Centers for Disease Control, wherein a list of his sexual partners was surveyed for the disease in order to demonstrate that it was sexually transmitted. There was nothing special about him except that he had kept track of his sex partners. Plenty of AIDS cases had been identified in North America prior to Patient Zero. Cite when I get home from Toronto or when **Hamish** finds this thread, whichever comes first. ---
**Author:** ![Road\_Rash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Road\_Rash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Road_Rash)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-day-for-persecuting-gays-bush-deathstyle-gay-basher-and-sodomy-laws/150697/35 "2003-01-26T02:58:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hermann Cheruscan \* > \*\* > Lets not forget Patient Zero. He was the homosexual flight attendent who was traced to many of the original AIDS cases in the US. Evidently, he even coined a phrase for the disease, “gay cancer”. According to the reports, he would have anal sex with other, unwitting men. And then, when they were done, he would turn on the lights and point out the sores on his body and say “I’ve got the gay cancer, and now you have it too”. > > [http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/from\_redirect/0,10987,1101871019-145257,00.html](http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/from_redirect/0,10987,1101871019-145257,00.html) \*\* Your link led me to believe time had actually done a factual article on this event. All it was was an archived book review. Why do you send this piece of shit link pretending it to be any kind of credible information!:wally ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-day-for-persecuting-gays-bush-deathstyle-gay-basher-and-sodomy-laws/150697/36 "2003-01-26T20:49:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by matt\_mcl \* > \*\* Although there was a person referred to as “Patient Zero”, he was not taken to be the unique source of HIV; he was merely the subject of an epidemiological study by the Centers for Disease Control, wherein a list of his sexual partners was surveyed for the disease in order to demonstrate that it was sexually transmitted. \*\* Just for more information with that, here’s an interview with Selma Dritz, where she talks about Patient Zero and the CDC (Dritz was assistant director of the Bureau of Communicable Disease Control of the San Francisco Department of Health) [http://sunsite.berkeley.edu:2020/dynaweb/teiproj/oh/science/aids1/@Generic\_\_BookTextView/1604](http://sunsite.berkeley.edu:2020/dynaweb/teiproj/oh/science/aids1/@Generic__BookTextView/1604) ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-day-for-persecuting-gays-bush-deathstyle-gay-basher-and-sodomy-laws/150697/37 "2003-01-26T21:52:41Z")
Thanks, **Captain Amazing** for such an informative, factual link. We need more of that. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-day-for-persecuting-gays-bush-deathstyle-gay-basher-and-sodomy-laws/150697/38 "2003-01-26T21:57:06Z")
A quote from the article to which **Captain Amazing** provided a link: > [@](#): > > I said, “We’ve got proof that you’ve been infecting these other people. You’ve got AIDS, you know. We know it’s transmissible now, because you’re transmitting it.” He was the active partner in all this gay business, anal-genital sex. “You’ve just got to cut it out.” > > **"Don’t be silly, I won’t cut it out. It’s my life. I’ll do what I want."** I said, “Yes, but you’re infecting other people.” **“I got it. Let them get it.”** I said, “You’ve got to cut it out!” “Screw you.” He walked out. I never saw him again. _(Bolding added.)_ > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by **grendel72** _ > What the hell is wrong with people. Do they just like being ignorant pieces of shit? Good question. Would you have asked that of Mr. Dugas? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![MrVisible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MrVisible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrVisible)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-day-for-persecuting-gays-bush-deathstyle-gay-basher-and-sodomy-laws/150697/39 "2003-01-26T21:58:50Z")
Yes. I would have. Such attitudes are incredibly irresponsible, destructive, immature and immoral. Next idiotic question? ---
**Author:** ![grendel72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/91b2a8/32.png) [@grendel72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grendel72)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-day-for-persecuting-gays-bush-deathstyle-gay-basher-and-sodomy-laws/150697/40 "2003-01-26T22:13:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shodan \* > \*\*Good question. Would you have asked that of Mr. Dugas? > > Regards, > Shodan \*\* Certainly. What the fuck does that have to do with anything? Asshole.:rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-day-for-persecuting-gays-bush-deathstyle-gay-basher-and-sodomy-laws/150697.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-day-for-persecuting-gays-bush-deathstyle-gay-basher-and-sodomy-laws/150697.md?page=3)