Following his high profile characterisation of AIDS as a gay plague, reported here at aidsmap, the Christian Activist Jerry Thacker is believed, yesterday, to be withdrawing his acceptance of an appointment to US president Bush’s HIV and AIDS advisory panel.
According to the report from Associated Press, Thacker was due to be sworn in alongside other new members of the 35 strong commission whose remit is to advise the White House on HIV prevention and treatment policy.
At this stage, the White House press secretary Ari Fleischer has neither confirmed nor denied the withdrawal, but has endeavored to distance the U.S. government from the homophobic diatribe synonymous with Thacker. Fleischer commented “the views that he holds are far, far removed from what the president believes. The president has a total opposite view…The president’s view is that people with AIDS need to be treated with care, compassion.”
Like the current U.S. administration, Thacker, promotes sexual abstinence as the best way to prevent HIV infection.
David Smith of the gay rights advocacy group Human Rights Campaign welcomed the decision that Thacker would not join the panel but cautioned; “while this is a positive development, the underlying problem continues to remain with this administration’s approach to HIV and AIDS. Their obsessive focus on abstinence as the solitary mechanism to prevent the transmission of HIV is not based in sound science. They continue to come from an ideological perspective as opposed to a scientific perspective.”