I've been scratching my head for several days now, trying to figure out why practically every news story about Rick Warren explains that he's not anti-gay, and in fact quite progressive and moderate, because he's worked on AIDS in Africa. Well, bully for him. But there are two problems there:1. I'm not African; and
2. AIDS in Africa is a predominantly heterosexual disease.
There's a reason that evangelicals work on AIDS in Africa. Because that way they don't have to deal with the "gay" ick-factor. And even better, as Jesse Helms once said—Helms was also a big fan of working on AIDS in Africa—the African AIDS crisis is especially affecting a large number of children, the "innocent victims," as Helms called them.
So, yes, right-wing bigots like to work on AIDS in Africa because there's no major homo component to the disease over there, and even better, a number of the "victims" are "innocent," unlike the "guilty" AIDS sufferers in America who are g-a-y.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad for anyone who wants to help the AIDS crisis in Africa. But spare us the condescending crap about how Rick Warren is a friend of gay Americans because he works on a heterosexual disease in a continent far far away.
