Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD, calls on Rep. Betty Price to apologize and denounce her vicious statement
NEW YORK – GLAAD, the world's largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization today called for a full apology from Georgia State Representative Betty Price for suggesting that those Georgians living with HIV and AIDS should be “quarantined” during a House Committee Meeting. Vicious comments like this will not address HIV prevention, and instead further promotes the misinformation and stigma that creates barriers to testing and treatment for vulnerable communities, including transgender women of color and young gay and bi+ men of color.
“We have come a long way in how we understand and talk about HIV as a nation, and comments like those made by Georgia State Representative Betty Price fly in the face of that progress, and of basic decency," said Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD. “This language coming from anyone is totally unacceptable, but coming from a medical doctor and a Georgia State Representative it is reprehensible. GLAAD is calling for a full apology for these remarks on behalf of all people affected by this harmful statement.”
Georgia State Rep. Betty Price is the wife of Former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price whose proposed budget during his time in the Trump Administration threatened to massively cut HIV and AIDS funding under the National Institutes of Health.
GLAAD got its start in the midst of the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, fighting back against defamatory coverage of people living with HIV. Since then, GLAAD has sought to lift up and magnify the voices of those working for greater awareness and acceptance of people living with HIV. As a part of GLAAD's commitment to prevention and treatment for people living with HIV, GLAAD released "HIV & AIDS in the news: A guide for reporting in a new era of prevention & treatment" as a resource for news media outlets to assist in fairly, inclusively, and accurately telling the story of people living with HIV in the United States.
