“What a shocker that the behavior that God says is an abomination is vastly disproportionately represented among sexually transmitted diseases.”
–Anti-LGBT activist Peter LaBarbera, of the group Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, citing an increase in syphilis cases as evidence that homosexuality is “as bad as God said it was and you can’t change that.”
“Look at homosexuality; God says it’s an abomination,” LaBarbera said. “Well, what a shocker that the behavior that God says is an abomination is vastly disproportionately represented among sexually transmitted diseases. Gee, Mike, what a shocker!”
LaBarbera made the comments in an interview with Mike Heath, an anti-LGBT activist from the group MaineResistance, Right Wing Watch reports. LaBarbera lamented what he believes to be a failure by social conservatives to fight against the LGBT rights movement.
He said that even though groups like the Family Research Council and the American Family Association are good at pushing back against LGBT rights measures when they are proposed, they are less willing to push for anti-LGBT legislation to reverse the progress made on LGBT rights.
“That’s the shame of our movement,” LaBarbera said, claiming God is on the side of anti-LGBT forces. “The homosexual activists behave as if they have the truth. We act as if we’re ashamed of the truth when, in reality, we have the truth.”
LaBarbera, one of the more prominent and singularly-focused anti-LGBT activists, has a long history of anti-gay statements.
He has previously said he believes men choose to be gay to get a “cheap orgasm” rather than become a “real man” by marrying a woman and having children with her.
He has also accused homosexuality of being a “liberal cult” and a “sin movement” that has infiltrated the black community and threatens Christians’ ability to express their faith.
G-A-Y Bar, a nightlife fixture in London’s Soho, turned into a pop-up sexual health clinic last week, offering vaccines and DoxyPEP to hundreds of patrons. The popular gay bar partnered with 56 Dean Street, an NHS clinic specializing in sexual health and HIV prevention, to host the September 18 event, with another scheduled for September 25.
The first pop-up drew about 550 people, with lines stretching down Old Compton Street. Inside, booths were turned into makeshift consultation rooms where patrons received advice, as pop anthems played, reports the BBC.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention credits interventions like doxy PEP for helping curb the spread of gonorrhea, syphilis, and chlamydia.
The overall rate of sexually transmitted infections has fallen for the third consecutive year, according to the latest provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The CDC reported 2.2 million cases of sexually transmitted infections in 2024 -- 13% higher than in 2015 but 9% lower than in 2023. The data also mark the third consecutive year that rates of syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia have declined.
Specifically, cases of primary and secondary syphilis -- the disease's most infectious stages -- declined by 22% from 2023, marking the second straight year of decline.
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