Feds Lift Ban on HIV-Positive Travelers for Chicago's 'Gay Games'
by Mary Rettig
March 14, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The executive director of an Illinois pro-family group is calling on President Bush to reinstate HIV travel restrictions for those wanting to enter the U.S. for the "Gay Games" in Chicago this summer.
The seventh installment of "Gay Games Sports and Culture Festival," scheduled for July 15-22 in the Windy City, has achieved federal recognition as a "Designated Event Status" -- as well as a federal blanket waiver that permits non-U.S. citizens with HIV/AIDS to enter the United States to participate or attend Gay Games 2006. Those travelers are eligible to apply for single-entry B-2 travel visa that is valid from a week before the quadrennial event until six days after the closing date.
At least one family advocate in the state is concerned about the possible arrival of thousands of HIV-infected people in his state. According to Peter LaBarbera with the Illinois Family Institute, the Gay Games' website is already promoting numerous "extracurricular" activities that he says are dangerous.
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Peter LaBarbera |
"On their website, they are already promoting highly dangerous homosexual behavior," says LaBarbera. The IFI leader is definitely concerned about that. "We really believe this waiver of the HIV ban is going to lead to more people being infected with HIV here in the Chicago area and possibly all across the nation and the world." LaBarbera says the Gay Games claim to be a show of amateur athleticism -- but asserts that it is really about promoting homosexuality.
"There are two 24-7 bathhouses on the website of the Gay Games," he says, explaining that a bathhouse is "a place where men with a homosexual problem go for anonymous sexual activity. And so it's very, very dangerous activity that's going on behind closed doors -- and two of them are actually sponsoring, are listed as official sponsors, of the Gay Games." Other sponsors of the event include Walgreens as the "Official HIV/AIDS Prevention Sponsor," and Lexiva, a medication for treating HIV infection.
LaBarbera says the dangerous nature of the homosexual lifestyle and inviting thousands of HIV-infected people to Chicago is simply a public health concern. Among those who pressed the federal government to allow HIV-positive people to enter the country for the event was Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. LaBarbera says President Bush should be concerned because, obviously, Mayor Daley is not.
Mary Rettig, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
