Chris Craddock's AIDS Ignorance

Here's what Craddock said the other day about AIDS in Africa, to an AP Government class at Westfield High School in Chantilly (please note that this story was first reported by Ben Tribbett at his blog, "Not Larry Sabato" - great work, Ben!):

Sex runs wild in Africa...Read any study that deals with the problems of AIDS in Africa and you'll see that.  I said sex runs rampant over there and that insane amounts of unprotected sex produces HIV.  was not talking about anybody here or black people [in general]. I was talking about a specific circumstance. If you have sex with anything with a pulse, AIDS is going to spread.

Wow.  So much ignorance, so little time.  What's amazing is that Craddock claims to have read up on the subject of AIDS in Africa, yet he obviously knows only half-truths and falsehoods.  Who knows what he's reading, but obviously it's not the experts on the subject. For instance, here's what UNAID - the United Nations' AIDS program has to say in its December 2004 report on the AIDS epidemic in Africa:

*"Social norms impose a dangerous ignorance on girls and young women, who often are expected to know little about sex and sexuality. That lack of knowledge magnifies their risk of HIV infection. In many countries, most young women do not know how to protect themselves against HIV infection."

*"The fact that the balance of power in many relationships is tilted in favour of men can have life-or-death implications. Women and girls often lack the power to abstain from sex or to insist on condom use?even when they suspect that the man has had other sexual partners and might be infected with HIV."

*"The relationship between HIV prevalence and socioeconomic indicators is highly complex. Nevertheless, social inequalities, layered atop widespread impoverishment and the social distortions wrought by migrant labour systems, and coupled with a burgeoning culture of consumerism, provide fertile ground for exploitative transactional, ?survival? and intergenerational sex in southern Africa..."

*"Across this subregion [of southern Africa] income-earning opportunities for women with low educational attainment are particularly poor, and industrial sectors in which female workers predominate (such as garment manufacturing) have been hard-hit by job losses related to changes in tariffs and subsidies. This has further weakened women?s economic status, aggravating gender inequalities and possibly heightening women?s vulnerability to HIV (Hunter, 2002)."

*"Education is a key defence against the spread of HIV. Studies in Zambia, for example, have found lower levels of HIV infection among better educated people (UNICEF, 2003b), while in Kenya research has linked higher education levels with increased AIDS awareness and knowledge, higher rates of condom use, and greater communication on HIV prevention among partners."

*"Sexual abuse and violence?much, but not all of it directed against females?are serious problems that transcend economic, social, ethnic and geographical lines. Adolescents, children and young women and girls in particular experience increased abuse in the form of domestic violence, rape and sexual assault, and sexual exploitation or undergo female genital mutilation....For some young women, their first sexual encounter occurs under coercion or force, which can be associated with an increase in HIV transmission."

In other words, AIDS in Africa is a complex phenomenon, with social, cultural, and economic aspects.  The key, however, is women's lack of education and power in society, combined with a lack of contraception options such as condoms.  That's why, in order to prevent AIDS, the UN's Global Coalition on Women and AIDS focuses on the following seven areas:

* HIV infection among adolescent girls;
  * violence against women;
  * the property and inheritance rights of women and girls;
  * equal access by women and girls to care and treatment;
  * improved community-based care, with a special focus on women and girls;
  * access to new prevention options, including female condoms and microbicides; and
  * on-going efforts towards universal education for girls.

Now, where in Chris Craddock's remarks is some indication that he understands ANY of this?  Right, it's not there.  Instead, we get an analysis worthy of a not-very-bright 7th grader ("Sex runs wild," "anything with a pulse," etc.).  That's sad, but it's also a pattern with Chris Craddock.  Another pattern is his bizarre "non-denial denials" of having said EXACTLY what he said.  For instance, when he made his "Christians and gays hate and despise each other" comment a few months back in the Washington Blade, he spent an awful lot of time and effort trying to deny he ever said what he was quoted as saying.  However, the Washington Blade never retracted the story or the quotes, and no evidence was every provided that they were inaccurate.

Now, Craddock has been caught again, and this time he's resorted to whining: "I feel like everything I'm talking about is being twisted into something I didn't say...I can't believe that people are trying to paint me in a corner this way."

Oh, poor Chris Craddock.  People - including smart High School kids - keep catching him saying things that are untrue and ignorant, like "nobody's born gay ? they turn gay."  Or, like when Craddock espouses his 1950s-era views on the causes of homosexuality, that "there are three ways to become gay: You don't have a father figure in your life, you have an abusive father figure or you have no loving support in your family." 

After he's done offending people, Cradoock's modus operandus is to whine and deny that he ever made the original remarks.  Essentially, Craddock doesn't back down but instead calls the accusers -- in this case, numerous High School students in Chantilly -- liars. 

By the way, Chris, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), "'consistent and correct' condom use reduces the risk of HIV infection by 90%."  Also, you might be interested to know that AIDS in Africa is transmitted overwhelmingly by heterosexual intercourse, not gay sex.  In fact, this is the case in the vast majority of the world, mainly because of the seven factors listed above.

Just thought I'd help clear up the vast amounts of ignorance, intolerance, and utter cluelessness that constitutes the mind of Chris Craddock.  Unfortunately, that looks to be a lifelong project.  In the meantime, voters in the 67th district have a great option -- vote for Chuck Caputo, endorsed by Republican incumbent Delegate Gary Reese and many others, including the Fairfax Coalition of Police and the Greater Washington Board of Trade, and the Virginia Education Association.  To put it mildly, this is not a difficult decision to make.

Comments