Homophobia

By now most of you know that the Internet is buzzing with news that President-Elect Obama is considering neurosurgeon/media personality Dr. Sanjay Gupta for the Surgeon General post – arguably the most influential public health advocate in the U.S. Should we be wary of having such a publicity aficionado and “health care industry insider” – whose most memorable appearance was his disturbing spat with Michael Moore against universal health care in the U.S. - as our top HIV/AIDS prevention advocate? Or could his celebrity and interest in HIV/AIDS issues (see Dr. Gupta's segment with Phil Wilson discussing the HIV/AIDS crisis in Black America) -work to our advantage?

What does the Surgeon General Do anyway?  read more »

When historical villains die, at least if they are white, male Americans, Conventional Wisdom and Miss Manners say one should simply move on neutrally, "not speaking ill of the dead." Or something.

I strongly disagree. Whereas I philosophically agree that there is no such thing as a totally evil person without contradictions, it is quite appropriate to draw a balance sheet on public figures who have greatly and directly impacted our lives ... in this case for ill.

Helms was such a voluble and prolific person, Rush-Limbaugh-cum-Senator-Claghorn, and his ascendance so felicitously intersected the rightward moving Zeitgeist, that his legacy of harm extends far and wide – from making overt racism politically acceptable in modernized ways, to eliminating civil liberties and the right to organize as workers, to restricting women's reproductive freedom domestically and around the world, to banning public support for art with any erotic or sexual content, to extending the HIV epidemic by forbidding any federal funds to be used on any materials that frankly portray and discuss sex and drug use.  read more »