Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders & AIDS
from Victoria A. Brownworth at Curve:
AIDS activists, like myself, need more from the Democrats
The Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, made some missteps last week that left many in the LGBT community upset. At the heart of the anger was one issue: AIDS...
Presidential candidates are bound to make mistakes–Clinton and Sanders have been engaged in a grueling schedule that people half their ages would have difficulty maintaining. But there is little room for errors–immediate or historical–in the kind of campaign that’s going on this year.
In the end, the response to these errors in speaking and in the case of Sanders, judgment, illumines a major distinction between the two candidates that voters should be considering. Throughout her campaign Clinton has apologized–for past mistakes, like her support of the 1994 Crime Bill (though she was FLOTUS, not an office holder) and her vote for the Iraq War and now for this mistake about the Reagans. Sanders remains intransigent: On his vote to support the 1994 Crime Bill, on his five votes against gun control and now, on his support for a dictator known to have done major harm to all citizens of Cuba, but specifically to dissidents, women who were pushed into forced labor and PWAs and LGBT people.
I would prefer politicians not make errors in judgment or even errors in speaking. But if they are going to make such errors, acknowledging them and moving forward is essential to statesmanship–or stateswomanship...
The Reagan years were dark years for this country–for the economy, for covert wars, for LGBT people. But for my community, the refusal to address a public health crisis that was killing people daily was an outrage I will never forgive nor forget.
Last week both Clinton and Sanders re-opened that wound. One tried to mitigate the pain she caused, the other did not. LGBT lives matter. And no candidate gets to dismiss our issues when it comes to our lives.
read more: http://www.curvemag.com/News/Hillary-Clinton-Bernie-Sanders-AIDS-1030/#.VuZp50U_-fK.twitter
Victoria A. Brownworth is an award-winning journalist, editor and writer and the author and editor of nearly 30 books. She has won the NLGJA and the Society of Professional Journalists awards, the Lambda Literary Award and has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. She won the 2013 SPJ Award for Enterprise Reporting in May 2014. She is a regular contributor to The Advocate and SheWired, a blogger for Huffington Post and A Room of Her Own, senior politics reporter and contributing editor for Curve magazine, contributing editor for Lambda Literary Review and a columnist for San Francisco Bay Area Reporter. Her reporting and commentary have appeared in the New York Times, Village Voice, Baltimore Sun, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, The Nation, Ms Magazine and Slate. Her book, Coming Out of Cancer: Writings from the Lesbian Cancer Epidemic won the Lambda Literary Award, From Where We Sit: Black Writers Write Black Youth won the 2012 Moonbeam Award for cultural & historical fiction. Her new novel, Ordinary Mayhem, won the IPPY Award for fiction on May 1, 2015.
= new reply since forum marked as read
She just wants to spread the blame around.
.@BernieSanders Not one person has vetted you. You never answer questions, you avoid them.You talk revolution but push status quo for women.
@VABVOX @BernieSanders if pay equity, raising minimum wage for single earners, maternal and mandatory family leave is status quo..... Whoa .
@hasanahmad80 Nothing Obama Admin hasn't either put forward or proposed.@BernieSanders never put 1 bill forward for women in 30yrs.Not. One.
@VABVOX @hasanahmad80 @BernieSanders Freedom of Choice act. There's one bill.
Why are you perpetuating lies without fact checking.
@SerperiorCraft Your apology is accepted in advance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Choice_Act … @hasanahmad80 @BernieSanders
@VABVOX @SerperiorCraft lol wikipedia as a source. He co-sponsored the freedom of choice act in 1993.
Victoria was indeed wrong:
Sanders co-sponsored protecting the reproductive rights of women
Source: Freedom of Choice Act (H.R.25) 1993-H25 on Jan 5, 1993
http://www.ontheissues.org/2016/Bernie_Sanders_Abortion.htm
He also co-sponsored an ERA:
Sanders co-sponsored a Constitutional Amendment:
Title: Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relative to equal rights for men and women. Summary: States that equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Source: House Resolution Sponsorship 01-HJR40 on Mar 22, 2001
http://www.ontheissues.org/Domestic/Bernie_Sanders_Civil_Rights.htm
As well as several others:
http://www.ontheissues.org/2016/Bernie_Sanders_Abortion.htm
So yeah, anything Victoria says about Bernie should be taken with a block of salt.
I assume from Brownworth's copious awards that she is actually not the complete imbecile that sort of sloppy reasoning makes her seem, and is simply disingenuously flailing in support of her sleazy candidate. The latter viewpoint is bolstered by her almost comically desperate attempt to paint a false equivalency of the candidates' AIDS-related statements/actions. That excerpt is a trainwreck of planted axioms, logical disjuncts, and transparent misrepresentation.
Perfect for Hillary's campaign, in other words.
