Living Out Loud with Darian

Every now and then you can't be afraid to break out your boxing gloves and go head to head and this is one of those times.

Pastor DL Foster, an ex-gay minister and creator of the Gay Christian Movement Watch, a website dedicated to monitoring inclusive churches and the "homosexual agenda" recently took his seething anti-gay propaganda to the next level in a post titled "The Glamorous Life of Aids".

In this post DL refers to an interview given to The Body.com by Keith Green, associate editor of the HIV/AIDS journal Positively Aware in Chicago as a person who believes living with HIV is a "good thing".

"AIDS, is still a deadly disease which is largely caused by immoral choices based on lies. If an effort to remove the “stigma” of AIDS, the spin now is that getting AIDS is actually a good thing. According to the cheery testimonials having HIV/AIDS can make you more sociable, interesting, and likeable. And don’t forget you are sure to become ”comfortable with yourself”. If you want popularity and tons of friends, just get AIDS. What a nauseating abomination". -from Gay Christian Movement Watch

If you read my National Black Aids Awareness Day post then you might remember the three testimonials given from HIV positive persons on living with the virus, Keith Green supplied two of those testimonials.




It's absolutely dangerous, twisted, and misleading for DL Foster to take the comments made by Keith Green out of context to support his own anti-gay agenda. HIV/AIDS has never been glamorous nor has anyone living with the disease ever tried to purport it as so. Keith Green and others like him have simply chosen to live life in the face of a disease that threatens to destroy.

Let's get one thing straight. DL Foster and other bible-thumping hypocritical Christians didn't give a damn about HIV/AIDS until it started to affect black women. They watched in horror as their mothers, and sisters succumbed to a disease they had written off as a plague that only affected gay men. There was no reason to ring the alarm as long as the gays were being punished with an AIDS diagnosis because of their "abominable" acts.

It's clear that in the first line of his post DL Foster is uninterested in pouring his efforts into treatment and prevention, but would rather know the details of the sexual act that led to seroconversion. All in an effort to further demonize the infected individual rather than lifting him up like we do so many other people in our community dealing with life- threatening diseases.

Thankfully in 2008 HIV/AIDS is not the death sentence it once was and is now a chronic manageable condition. But I'm almost certain any HIV positive person would warn others not to make the same mistakes they did, and Keith Green's testimonials are far from advertisements to practice high-risk behavior.

So I have to say... Negro please get a grip! You (DL Foster) should be apart of the solution and not the problem! Your new ex-gay title does not give you the right to cloak your self in self-righteousness in order to play God.

Maybe you don't realize it but HIV/AIDS has a face and it looks just like you and me. Being a "new heterosexual" doesn't isolate you from the virus. You may not approve of homosexuality and that's your right, but the worst thing you could do is spread the message that HIV/AIDS only affects a certain group of people and simultaneously diminish the hope of those living with the virus.

You should be more responsible. I refuse to believe that you are as cold and heartless as you appear to be. After all, that wouldn't be Christ-like.