Americans are proud of the fact that we respect individual rights. But that does not mean you can do whatever you want to do; that’s the “law” of the jungle. Where do we draw the line? Your right to swing your fist stops where my chin starts.
For the last decade, we have heard a lot of aggressive political posturing about the right of the homosexuals to pursue their preferences. That right has now come into sharp collision with the rights of the rest of us to live in a safe society.
When the public health problem was smallpox, tuberculosis, polio, scarlet fever, or measles, public officials moved decisively to protect the well from the sick. Make smallpox vaccination mandatory for all, regardless of religious or other objections! Close the public swimming pools lest they expose more people to polio! Segregate TB patients lest their illness spread to others! Quarantine the college where there is a measles epidemic!
Society doesn’t punish the drunk driver only after his careening car costs the life of another. Society calls it an offense at the moment the drunk driver gets behind the steering wheel. We don’t have to wait until somebody dies to take action against this risk-spreader on the highway.
AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is 100% fatal. AIDS is a virus for which there is no cure and no prospect of a cure. AIDS is a sexually transmitted disease which can also be “caught” from blood and bodily fluids. In addition to semen and blood, the AIDS virus has been found in serum, saliva, urine, and tears.
Federal authorities estimate that one million Americans are now carrying the AIDS virus in their bodies. Most of them don’t know they have the AIDS virus, and they may be carriers even if they do not succumb to the disease itself. At least 10% of AIDS sufferers are innocent, involuntary victims such as babies.
Male homosexuals are the principal victims of AIDS, but they are also the principal carriers of the contagion. This public health problem has been spread throughout our country by an identifiable class of people who engage in a bizarre, risk-taking recreation: frequent promiscuous (often anonymous) homosexual sex.
The media report daily on the subject of AIDS, but most reports are couched in semantics designed to shield the sensibilities of the homosexuals and to assert the “civil rights” of persons with AIDS over the rights of those who don’t want to get AIDS.
U.S. News & World Report tells readers how to reduce the risk of AIDS: “receive blood transfusions only when medically necessary.” That advice is not much help to the victim of an automobile accident brought bleeding to death into the emergency room (a daily occurrence in most hospitals).
Has the homosexual lobby really persuaded us that their right to engage in promiscuous, perverted sex takes precedence over the rights of the rest of us to have uncontaminated blood available for medical emergencies?
The New York school system asserts the right of a child who has AIDS to attend school and thereby run the risk of exposing healthy children. Where are the rights of the healthy children and their tens of thousands of protesting parents?
A Los Angeles ordinance protects the right of a dental hygienist with AIDS to clean your teeth, even if he has a paper cut on his finger. Where are the rights of the dental patients who may not even be aware that their hygienist is diseased?
A San Francisco hospital forbids nurses to wear gloves when caring for AIDS patients. That’s obviously a political decision kowtowing to the homosexual lobby.
The media may be partial to the homosexuals, and some politicians may be intimidated by them, but the grassroots are demanding action to protect the public health. Even New York State is closing down the bathhouses which are havens of homosexual promiscuity.
Other proposals include making it a felony for homosexuals and intravenous drug users to donate blood; quarantining AIDS victims; barring children with AIDS from public schools; prohibiting anyone with AIDS from working in the health-care industry; assuring protection for health-care workers against AIDS patients; requiring a test that detects AIDS antibodies for workers in certain occupations such as food handling.
Nobody has a civil right to subject others to a fatal disease or to the risk of a fatal disease. We should all enjoy the right to be as safe as possible.
