Kansas wants to quarantine HIV suffers

[HeckBound]

One of my best friends was just diagnosed with HIV after being raped last year I can't imagine adding the punishment of being quarantined to what she has already been through. Of course these assholes probably would claim her rape at knife-point by two men who attacked her while she was hiking on a trail at a local state park was her fault

Indeed. If she didn't die defending herself, it doesn't count.

SoybeanQueen, I lived in Kansas for 3 years as a newlywed back in 1990. I loved it and loved the people there, and thought of it as home for a while. I don't recall this sort of political environment when I was there, but I might have missed it. Anyway, the people I knew were great.

[tankgirl]

1982 called. They want their attitudes about AIDS back where it belongs in history! They said they were assholes about AIDS then, and it's even more assholeish now because everyone knows you can't get AIDS from non-intimate contact.

Yeah, I was going to go on the 1980's rant myself. I mean Ryan White isn't fighting to go to school and we know how the disease passes now, we aren't ignorant about a new disease now in 2013. This thing has been around more then 30 years, why now? I mean we know that Kansas is stuck in a time warp, but damn are they behind. So you should wait to start quarantines after medical care is advancing and reports of several "cured" people to make a move? I think they need leper, plaque and TB homes too, I mean got to keep up, right?

[docmom]

HIV is difficult to contract and quite easy to control nowadays (one pill once a day for most folks). It's gone from being a certain death sentence to a chronic disease. If we must quarantine folks let's quarantine people who are, you know, actually contagious like folks with hate filled right wing agendas.

[Fargood]

It is like the world is going backwards.

I live in one of the states that is leading the charge to rolling back the clock 50 years. It's so depressing. My workplace is full of liberals, so thank beejeezus for that, but I shudder at even reading the paper.

[Jana814]

Maybe because I live in a VERY liberal area, but it really bothers me that their are people in this world who still that way about people w/ AIDS!!

[AllisonWndrland]

SoybeanQueen, I lived in Kansas for 3 years as a newlywed back in 1990. I loved it and loved the people there, and thought of it as home for a while. I don't recall this sort of political environment when I was there, but I might have missed it. Anyway, the people I knew were great.

I still live in Kansas. I can say that the majority of the people in this state are good people who genuinely care about others. The legislature has been pushing insanity this session (and the last few, for that matter) by ignoring the pressing issues of taxes (the Governor's tax plan is nothing short of the dumbest shit I have ever seen), education and school funding, medical coverage for low-income folks, and employment. Instead, they have been jerking around about strippers or screaming about immigrants or ignorance like this. My experience indicates that the Kansans actually supporting what is happening politically are the extremely conservative religious folks, and no, the majority of Kansans are not extremely conservative religious folks. Conservative, sure. Religious, yes. Willfully ignorant? Not really. I don't think the Republican voters in this state bargained for the elected officials they actually got when they voted. The recent happenings here should be a lesson in voting after research and not along party lines.

And yes, House Bill 2183 is repugnant. This hasn't really hit the mainstream papers and media in the state yet, aside from a Kansas City news station. I'm hoping with the recent non-Kansas media coverage that it will actually get some attention and outcry.

[JenniferJuniper]

HIV is difficult to contract and quite easy to control nowadays (one pill once a day for most folks). It's gone from being a certain death sentence to a chronic disease. If we must quarantine folks let's quarantine people who are, you know, actually contagious like folks with hate filled right wing agendas.

It's not difficult to contract if you are sexually active with someone who is HIV positive (particularly if you are a woman with a positive male partner) and while it's not a death sentence, it is still not a good diagnosis to get.

But I seriously doubt these Kansans have any clue that the fastest growing group of new HIV patients is heterosexual people over the age of 50. Some of their parents would probably be forced into concentration camps.

America. Some parts of it are just itching to be 1930’s Germany.

[docmom]

It's not difficult to contract if you are sexually active with someone who is HIV positive (particularly if you are a woman with a positive male partner) and while it's not a death sentence, it is still not a good diagnosis to get.

But I seriously doubt these Kansans have any clue that the fastest growing group of new HIV patients is heterosexual people over the age of 50. Some of their parents would probably be forced into concentration camps.

America. Some parts of it are just itching to be 1930’s Germany.

You are right, however, my point was that we do not quarantine people who have other much more contagious diseases and we are not nearly as scared of other much less controllable conditions. This law is based on ignorance, sure, but it's really based on hate.

[Trynn]

This MIGHT have made sense back in the 80s, when no one knew how it was transmitted and it was the new "big scare" disease...

How people can justify proposing this in 2013 after all that medical knowledge and research that proves that HIV is transmitted is... is...

[Childless]

Wow. Kansas politicians really aren't that bright are they.

[Claddagh]

Shades of 1984.

Their suggestions of the quarantine is disturbing.

While there still is no cure HIV can be treated and helped with proper medicine. I know someone who is HIV positive. They contracted it through a blood transfusion. Are we going to ban blood transfusions all together next?

[Beammeup]

Crap I live in conservative Hicks ville, and this wouldn't fly here at all.

[LainieR]

What the fuck is wrong with people? When did factal information become a hinderance rather than a primary guiding principle in decision making? I just don't understand the hatred.

[salex]

What the fuck is wrong with people? When did factal information become a hinderance rather than a primary guiding principle in decision making? I just don't understand the hatred.

Despite an argument against "situational ethics" that I've heard from some of these people, the KS legislature is quite willing to ignore facts if they find them annoying. So, doctors can lie to patients and not tell them bad results of prenatal testing if they "think" the patient might have an abortion, the state can require anyone going in for an abortion be told abortion causes breast cancer, they can make heros out of former state prosecutors who were disbarred for mishandling medical records confiscated from abortion clinics, ignore any science that contradicts 6 24 hour days as creation just a few thousand years ago, etc.

KS voted out most moderate republicans last summer in the primaries. Dems often don't run a candidate (including for my district's congressional seat last time) so if t

hey get how judges are put in place in the state (they want Sam to appoint more of them) this place will be primed for christian taliban leadership.