Wyoming Lawmaker Stands By His Decades-Old Claims About Gays, AIDS

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A Wyoming lawmaker is standing by a book he published decades ago that made contentious claims about gays and HIV/AIDS.

State Rep. Troy Mader (R) told the Casper Star-Tribune in a story published Thursday that his self-published 1987 book, “The Death Sentence of AIDS: Vital Information For You and Your Family’s Health and Safety,” may feature outdated research since HIV/AIDS was relatively new territory in the medical field at that time.

But he wouldn’t back down from his argument that gays are more likely to be promiscuous than heterosexuals and thus contribute to spreading sexually transmitted diseases.

“If you want to participate in that particular lifestyle, that’s your choice,” Mader told the newspaper. “But I reserve the right to say, ‘Hey, there’s risk involved.’”

He also argued that “many homosexuals demand the right to kill themselves with the AIDS virus and to kill others by infecting them” and that “many homosexuals demand the right to have sexual acts with children of any age, including infants,” according to a copy of the out-of-print book obtained by the Star-Tribune.

Mader told the newspaper that he vetted his research and used credible sources, including the Journal of the American Medical Association, to compile the book. But he declined to defend the statistics and medical recommendations he used, saying he just quoted what experts had to say at the time.

h/t Huffington Post

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