Friday, December 21, 2007
RELIVING THE NIGHTMARE
December 21, 2007 Arkansan activist calls attention to Huckabee’s AIDS atrocities during his tenure as Governor Camp (in blue tie), when Huckabee signed law allowing Arkansas to fund AIDS meds for the poor—but this symbolic effort wasn’t enough AIDS activist Eric Camp, 44, believes that he and his former Gov. Mike Huckabee have some similarities. They both hail from conservative Southern Arkansas and that allows Camp, who is openly gay, to understand the depths of Huckabee’s homophobia. “It’s just a very homophobic part of the country,” Camp said. “I have internalized homophobia that I’m still dealing with to this day.” When it comes to HIV/AIDS, however, Camp and Huck have very little in common. In 1992 when Camp was diagnosed with the virus, Huckabee was sounding off about quarantining people with HIV. And when Huckabee’s nonfunding of Arkansas’ AIDS Drug Assistance Program cut half of the people from its rolls, Camp went on a meds strike in 2004, voluntarily removing himself from ADAP for two years. That act of bravery led to a stroke and seizures, and although he has mostly recovered, his cognitive abilities have declined. “But knowing that I… (more)
