Y'all watch Donald Trump's daily corona-lingus briefing full of lies today? Yeah us neither.
But as we close out this week, we want to note a nice thing that happened this week at one of those pressers, and by "nice" we mean it probably made America's Number One Anti-Gay Bigot Mike Pence feel so uncomfortable, and we bet Mother got very mad when she saw it on the television.
We are talking about Tuesday, when Dr. Anthony Fauci talked at length about the "incredible courage and dignity and strength and activism" America's LGBTQ people showed when the HIV epidemic hit.
And Mike Pence had to stand behind him, and just listen.
Dr. Anthony Fauci: "When all this is over, and as we've said, it will end. We will get over Coronavirus, but there… https://t.co/LQnfLlnrko
— CSPAN (@CSPAN) 1586301475.0
FAUCI: During that period of time, [...] there was extraordinary stigma, particularly against the gay community. And it was only when the world realized how the gay community responded to this outbreak with incredible courage and dignity and strength and activism — I think that really changed some of the stigma against the gay community, very much so.
Fauci was talking about how coronavirus is exposing disparities in healthcare for black Americans, which is leading to their "suffering disproportionately" from the disease — like, extremely disproportionately — and how when this is all over, those problems will still be there and will have to be addressed.
But the way Fauci brought up the "courage and dignity and strength" of LGBTQ people, and managed to just casually kick Mike Pence in the dick in the process, well if they give out an Oscar for "Most Classy Dick-Kicking Of Mike Pence During A Coronavirus Press Briefing," Fauci will probably win it.
We all know Mike Pence is a fuckin' bigot, that is not new information. This is the guy Donald Trump once joked "wants to hang them all," and he was talking about gays.
But it's worth shining a light, because Mike Pence has a specific history when it comes to standing on the opposite side, fighting against people who daily display "courage and dignity and strength" confronting HIV and AIDS, which still (by the way) exist. And of course, he has acted with vicious hostility toward LGBTQ people throughout his career.
When he was governor of Indiana, Pence's crusade against Planned Parenthood led to clinic closures all over the state, which then led (SHOCKINGLY) to an HIV outbreak in a tiny county at the southern end of the state. If coronavirus in America can be accurately called the Trump Virus (and it can), then the Scott County HIV outbreak can be called the Pence HIV Outbreak.
Interestingly, the guy who is now surgeon general, Jerome Adams, whom you see in some of the briefings, was Pence's public health commissioner back in Indiana. It was he who shoved his foot up Pence's ass (relax, Mother, we said his "foot") and made Pence do a temporary rule change to allow needle exchanges in Scott County. Adams is widely credited with spearheading the response to that HIV outbreak, which Mike Pence helped start.
Pence also called for AIDS funding to be diverted to "ex-gay" therapy, because why help AIDS patients if they're not sorry for their wrong-fucking? He jizzed himself in public defending that awful Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act back in 2015, which would have allowed people to discriminate against gays all the way, as long as they promise they're doing it for Jesus. Even after a massive backlash led Indiana to pass a "fixed" version of the bill that wasn't quite as gay-hatey, Pence kept looking for ways to discriminate against the gays.
As LGBTQ Nation notes, when Pence has given speeches as vice president for World AIDS Day, Pence has not even mentioned LGBTQ people .
This isn't the first time the fight against HIV/AIDS has come up in these briefings, either. Dr. Deborah Birx brings it up too, along with Fauci, because it is also one of her specific areas of expertise, and she and Fauci have worked together on HIV/AIDS issues for approximately 400 decades.
And every time they bring it up, Mike Pence just has to stand there and quietly hate gays all by himself while the mean science doctors are talking.
It is a Nice Thing.
And now it is your OPEN THREAD.
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