No Money For You.

Brown told the Journal he doesn't believe HIV/AIDS patients should be covered for diseases caused "by the way they live," saying that any patients who contracted such illnesses "sexual behavior or drugs" should pay the full cost of treatment themselves. - The Charlotte Observer.

You have got to be kidding me.

Ok lets just go for the obvious here, you can’t just pick one or two disease caused by lifestyle choices to not offer assistance for. The standpoint of ‘No coverage for something you did to yourself’ is all inclusive not pick and choose. The short list of diseases for which funding should be removed in cases where lifestyle was the direct cause. 

Cancer - Are you a smoker? Were you exposed to caustic chemicals? Bummer, no money for you either you had a choice and decided to expose yourself. No money.

Obesity - Did Little Debbie hold a gun to your head and make you eat all that mass produced crap food that is so cheap and mass marketed to you and tell you not to exercise? Nope. No money tubby.

Diabetes - You again tubby? Shame on you. You mean to tell me someone made you drink all that high sugar soda? I don’t think so you could have had a vitamin water. No money. (And I hear that diabetic testing stuff is expensive. Good luck!)

Heart Diseases - You again! Tubby you really need to stop asking. So now you want me to believe all that crap you ate clogged up your arteries, now your heart doesn’t work to well? Oh well no one made you eat it. No money

You  get my point, we can’t just cut state funding for a programs or medications because odds are lifestyle of the sick lead them there. Sure, they did it to themselves, whatever. Doesn’t mean we leave them in the gutter to die. You take them in, place them in programs to help them get better so they can live a productive rest of their time. Hopefully sharing their experience to educate and help prevent these things from happening in the future.

Cutting the funds and turning people away will just lead to huge death tolls. People can’t afford the treatments they need. Plain and simple, people count on those in charge to help take care of them. Brown’s plan for the great state of North Carolina will be sitting back watching people perish.

I just wanted to mention this in the spirit of being fair. A lot of articles I have read are calling Brown’s comments on the subject; “hateful rhetoric” In this case, I don’t think so. Yeah, he hates gays, but he hates a lot of other things too. it’s not fair to say just because a man made comments that included the words "queer" and "fruit loop" that every decision he makes is based on his hate of gays. I think sometimes people forget he's a person, He has plenty of other things to hate he doesn't spend every second of every day plotting against just gays.

He was quoted saying; because of… "sexual behavior or drugs" Statements like ‘sexual behavior' or 'perverse lifestyle' are all encompassing, straight or gay. I asked an openly gay friend of mine to read the article and give me his thoughts on it. Here is what he had to say.

“It’s exactly this kind of hypocrisy that's going to kill us. One has to think of it like this: if his reasoning is correct, then how many other medications should we cut funding for because of lifestyles that cause illness? Should we stop funding Diabetes medication and research because high sugar and fat intake can cause it? Should we stop should we stop funding blood pressure medications? Cholesterol meds? Sure, not all cases of the above are always a result of fucking up somewhere in our lives, but quite a few are. For every glandular problem there are going to be 10 people who compulsively eat. For every infected blood transfusion there may be 10 promiscuous people. Oh well. It is not on us to judge why or how. It's our job as people to show compassion and help them anyway, like it or not. Money is replaceable. Our lives are not.”  - Mark Bryan

Yes, we have the same name. Anyway my point is, an openly gay man saw no “hateful rhetoric” which is not to say he didn't notice any of the underlying tone of Brown's anti-gay feelings, but rather that he was able to focus on the real issue at hand. So for all you groups out there tearing this apart to help promote your cause give it up, it discredits you and your organization by taking focus away from those who might lose necessary medical assistance. Tackle the issue at hand, not the one that supports your cause.