GLAAD keeps pushing Sherri Shepherd, ABC to correct info about HIV, black women, “down-low” men [video]
”Where it’s starting is, it’s so big in the black community with women because they’re having unprotected sex with men who have been having sex with men.”
Sherri Shepherd on ”The View” June 22, 2010 in a discussion about HIV infection and a continued ban on blood donations by gay men. Guest host D.L. Hughley and Shepherd both put forth reckless declarations that bisexual black men are the primary reason black women are being infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Hughley was arguing against a Slate.com article that stated that the black community is not banned from donating blood despite accounting for half of HIV/AIDS cases in the US. Hughley seemed to support the ban on blood donations from from gay males, indicating his belief that a change in policy would be due to “political correctness” entering the field of medicine.
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation renewed it’s pressure this week for the ABC TV network and host Sherri Shepherd to correct the information put forth by panelists about black women getting HIV from “down-low” men. The US Centers for Disease Control indicates that high-risk heterosexual sex and injection drug use are the leading causes of infection for African-American women, and that untreated sexually-transmitted diseases coupled with low diagnosis of HIV-infection are also contributing factors for the African-American population at large. (GLAAD.org)
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