Deep Thinking From the AIDS Czarina

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1993. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Deep Thinking From the AIDS Czarina

Washington Times (10/25/93) P. A20

Before a group of health care specialists on the White House lawn last Wednesday, AIDS czar Kristine Gebbie denounced the United States' persisting Victorian attitudes about sex and called for society to loosen up. "Victorian society that misrepresents information, denies sexuality early, denies homosexuality particularly in teens, and leaves people abandoned with no place to go" cannot be tolerated, said Gebbie. After her remarks hit the press, the White House retracted Gebbie's statement on her behalf. Instead, the former nursing educator meant to say, "Abstinence is the surest prevention of HIV transmission and must be communicated as part of the complete prevention message." However, the editors of the Washington Times write that the White House's statement was "neither what Ms. Gebbie said, nor what she thinks." Recalling a statement Gebbie made at the Oct. 3 annual meeting of the Design Industries Foundation, the editors note that the AIDS czar believes that teaching abstinence is "criminal" because "it spreads fear and leads to adults who see nothing positive about their sexuality." Regardless, the editors find Gebbie's assessment of American society as Victorian to be ludicrous. "Anyone who can find Victorian repression prevailing in a culture that has given us Madonna, Sharon Stone, and Robert Mapplethorpe has to have a screw [loose,]" the editors conclude.

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