This month marks the 30th Anniversary since the first diagnosis of what would come to be known as HIV/AIDS, which still ravages the world. As the gay and medical communities tried to cope with the unexpected new affliction, conservatives used the virus as an opportunity to demonize the LGBT community. Among the most vitriolic opponents of the community was Rep. William Dannemeyer (R-CA), who in 1989 contributed to a fear-mongering video called “AIDS: What You Haven’t Been Told.” The video suggested, among other things, that AIDS (HIV) could become airborne, and Dannemeyer was all too eager to endorse that idea:

DANNEMEYER: It’s known to have the ability to mutate extensively, and the fear of some of these researchers is that it would mutate to a form where it would be transmitted between humans through the respiratory system. Now please don’t misunderstand me; there’s no proof today that it is transmissible through the respiratory system — I don’t want to alarm somebody here. But the fear is that it could mutate to the point where it does or is able to be transmitted through the respiratory system, and of course that’s what happened in the 14th Century with the Black Plague. [...]

If it becomes respiratory-borne, then we’ll have extensive problems in our society because the knowledge would be among all of us that continued social contact might result in the acquisition of the virus. You can obviously see that we can’t function as a society at that point.

Watch it:

Dannemeyer’s rhetoric was not unusual for the times and even in present-day, many still have misconceptions about the virus and its associated disease. We recently pointed out Pat Buchanan’s 1983 post suggesting no homosexual should be permitted to handle food.

[H/T: Karen Ocamb.]

Via Chris Johnson at The Washington Blade, groups like the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network and Servicemembers United are calling upon Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to certify repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell before he retires at the end of the month:

Waiting for certification after Gates retires, advocates said, could further delay “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal because Leon Panetta, the incoming defense secretary who currently serves as CIA director, may want to examine the issue further before signaling the military is ready for open service.

[SLDN's Aubrey Sarvis] said a scenario in which Panetta would assume his position as defense secretary and within matter of weeks say the armed forces are ready for certification is “highly unlikely.”

“I think that he would want to spend some time with the chiefs and with the troops to make a thorough analysis of the situation,” Sarvis said. “I don’t think that’s something you can do in a matter of days.”

Back in December before repeal had passed in Congress, Gates said that he would not sign the certification “until the Service Chiefs are comfortable that the risks to unit cohesion and combat effectiveness of a change have been addressed to their satisfaction and to my satisfaction.” Since then, even Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos, the most reluctant of the Joint Chiefs when it came to DADT repeal, has called for its orderly implementation.

Just yesterday, Gates told a Marine in regards to ending DADT that, “If we do this right, nothing will change.” Hopefully, Gates is including himself in “we” and making sure the job is done before he moves on.

Via Pam Spaulding, the four-openly gay members of Congress are urging President Obama to “formally threaten to veto the Defense Authorization bill if it contains language that could undermine the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’” The measure that passed the House contained two amendments that would expand the certification process to include the service chiefs, prohibited the Navy from performing same-sex marriage on Navy bases in states where they are legal, and re-applied the Defense of Marriage Act to the the armed forces. Similar measures are not expected in the Senate version of the bill.

President Obama has expressed opposition to these provisions in a statement of administration policy, but Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) Jared Polis (D-CO) and David Cicilline (D-RI) are calling on Obama to go further:

But some questions have been raised by opponents of the policy who have noted a distinction between those provisions of the House passed bill that you noted could lead to a veto, and the absence of such language regarding the anti-“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” provisions. We believe it would therefore be extremely useful for you to make clear that if the final bill presented to you does include these sections, which would undermine the end to discrimination in the military, that you will veto the bill on that ground.

Significantly, the service chiefs have previously indicated that they trusted Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to address their concerns before eliminating the policy and warned Republicans that expanding the certification process could actually undermine the chain of command. The DADT law will not be repealed until 60 days after the president, the defense secretary and the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff certify the U.S. military is ready for open service.

Erica Díaz with partner Naomi Torres and sons Jared and Jeremiah. (Photo credit: Angel Chevrestt)

Following a vitriolic interview vocal homophobe Sen. Rev. Rubén Díaz (D) gave last week comparing homosexuality to drug addiction, his lesbian granddaughter Erica Díaz has publicly rebuked him for his religious condemnations and also for using her to defend his bigotry. In a letter in today’s New York Post, Díaz describes how her grandfather outed her in a television interview before she had even come out to him:

I never told my grandfather.

Three years later I was watching grandpa do a TV interview. “I’m not homophobic. I have gay family members. I have a gay granddaughter.”

I was stunned that he outed me on the air, since I never spoke to him about it directly. So I marched myself to his church and sat him down in his office and told him that I was a lesbian.

Then, at his May 15 anti-equality rally (where at least one speaker proclaimed that gays and lesbians deserved death), Sen. Díaz invited Erica to join him after she had been counterprotesting across the street. She describes the day:

I was so nervous that morning that I threw up. I spoke against him across the street, directly within his view.

But then I approached a police officer who escorted me to the podium where he spoke. My grandfather introduced me to the crowd and kissed me on the forehead. “This is my granddaughter,” he said. “She chose her way of life, but I chose God’s way, but I love her.” [...]

You cannot tell someone that you love them and stay silent when people call for their death. “Love” is empty when you say someone’s life isn’t natural.

An overwhelming number of New Yorkers agree with Erica (58 percent), but Díaz’s message (trumpeted by the Catholic Church) seems to be resonating with key swing votes in the Senate. For example, Sen. Greg Ball (R) has said he will not vote for a bill that does not exempt religious organizations (like, say, Catholic Charities — which he explicitly references) from the requirement to recognize same-sex marriages.

If marriage equality is to pass in New York this month, advocates will have to resist the pressure by religious groups eager to maintain a special privilege to discriminate. Bullies like Díaz and apologists like Ball deserve to be called out, and Erica should be applauded for taking that step with her grandfather.

This morning, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum (R) announced his candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination, telling ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, “We are ready to announce that we are going to be in this race and we’re in it to win.” But Santorum — who is possibly most famous for his “Google problem” — may have an uphill climb to the nomination. He currently polls in the single digits in the early primary states and has a long history of making offensive statements about gay people, African Americans, women, and Muslims. Below is a short recap of his record:

GAYS:

1. “In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That’s not to pick on homosexuality. It’s not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be….If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything.” [4/2003]

2. “Is anyone saying same-sex couples can’t love each other? I love my children. I love my friends, my brother. Heck, I even love my mother-in-law. Should we call these relationships marriage, too?” [5/22/2008]

3. On repeal of DADT: “I’m worried when many people will stand up and say, ‘well whatever the Generals want.’ I’m not too sure that we haven’t indoctrinated the Officer Corps in this country that they can actually see straight to make the right decisions.” [2/20/2010]

4. On gay adoption: “A lesbian woman came up to me and said, ‘why are you denying me my right?’ I said, ‘well, because it’s not a right.’ It’s a privilege that society recognizes because society sees intrinsic value to that relationship over any other relationship.” [5/3/2011]

5. On teaching history of gay Americans: “I certainly would not approve of [a bill moving through the California legislature compels the state to add gay history to the state education curriculum], but there’s a logical consequence to the courts injecting themselves in creating rights and people attaching their legislative ideas to those rights that in some respects could logically flow from that. So I’m not surprised.” [5/10/2011]

RACE:

6. “I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say ‘now we are going to decide who are people and who are not people’.” [1/19/2011]

7. “Marriage is an institution that’s a bridge too far for too many African-American women and is not desirable among African-American males….I think [Obama] has to realize that flying to New York is…self-indulgent. Go down to the corner bar and have a drink, a shot, and a beer.” [6/2/2009]

WOMEN:

8. “In far too many families with young children, both parents are working, when, if they really took an honest look at the budget, they might find they don’t both need to….The radical feminists succeeded in undermining the traditional family and convincing women that professional accomplishments are the key to happiness“. ['It Takes A Family,' 7/6/2005]

ISLAM:

9. Santorum responded to the Pentagon’s decision rescind its invitation to evangelist Franklin Graham to speak at the upcoming National Day over his statement that Islam is “evil” by saying that Graham’s comment was “a reasonable statement at the time.” [3/23/2010]

10. “I think the Democrats are actually worried [Obama] may go to Indonesia and bow to more Muslims.” [3/23/2010]

11. “The creeping Sharia throughout Europe and here in this country and in Canada. The Islamization of Europe that is already on the way and will visit these shores not too soon is a concern for us and something that we need to identify and we need to talk about and we need to fight with every ounce of our being“. [2/28/2009]

12. “Now we have the Attorney General confirming to Osama bin Laden just bide your time and the effeminate and pampered Americans will cower away.” [2/28/2009]