Branding HIV-Positive People?
Posted by: Olivia Allin
Filed in:
news
7:00AM, Friday May 29th 2009
Swaziland parliament member Timothy Myeni recently had a lightbulb zinger of an idea to solve his country’s HIV/AIDS problem. He wanted to brand all HIV-positive people on the butt(ox), so that people could physically check their partners to make sure they’re clean before getting down with them. We get that this idea was well-intentioned, but seriously? Branding people. Like cattle? Thank lordy Myeni came to his senses. At a news conference today, he said, “I’m very sorry. If you need me to show a sign of how sorry I am, I’m ready.”
Myeni, we forgive you. But, really, how did this ever sound like an idea people would actually get behind? (Behind, hehe.) Myeni, if you’re out there, next time you’re proposing an idea, why don’t you think about how you’d like to be on the receiving end of it. No one likes being the butt of a joke. Okay, I’ll stop now.
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resullins
wrote on May 29 2009 @ 12:13 pm: [report]
Hmmm… I’m all for AIDS rights and what not. But think about it… the only way these people would be branded is if they KNEW they were HIV positive. If they’re still having sex without telling their partners, that legally makes them criminals. We register all sex offenders in this country, how is this really different? While I whole-heartedly do NOT agree with physically hurting people, some marker or registry would NOT be a bad idea.
Maybe I’m a monster, but this is a global epidimic… drastic measures should be taken. This is the only fatal disease in the world that can be entirely prevented… shouldn’t we be doing more to prevent it?