"Oh, what fresh hell is this?" Dorothy Parker once famously asked. And you might well ask, too, if you have been paying close attention to the news out of Kansas this week. I received an email yesterday asking me this very question with a link that informed me that there is a Kansas bill which calls for HIV positive people to be quarantined! Of course you have to understand that Kansas is feeling a might under rated right now. They are being shoved out of what they think is their rightful place as the most backward and bigoted state. You know, North Dakota is passing their amazing idiotic abortion bill so that they can jump ahead of Mississippi. An abortion bill that will never pass a court challenge, but is great for making North Dakota sound mean spirited and hateful. They want to have the most draconian law, and you've got to get up early to concoct that puppy! So poor Kansas is just plain bummed that they are not getting the same stunned press. What happened? Isn't that our stock and trade? Think creationism. What to do? What to do? Well, to quote Cody Patton, "We live in a very conservative state and I'm afraid there are still many people, especially in rural Kansas, that have inadequate education and understanding concerning HIV/AIDS."
Cody is the Executive Director of a sexual health charity - Positive Directions. He explains how the legislators are corrupting and confusing a 1988 law that was put in place for firefighters and para medics who had to get a court order to test for infectious diseases if they had been exposed. In today's world you only have to be slightly literate to untangle the old thinking, and then you have to be purposefully up to no good to write a new law showing a desire for discrimination. Now, we are back in business, North Dakota. Look out here we come!!!
Lawmakers in both houses of the legislature are working hard to get back in the news with this new way of showing everyone their ignorance, and if all goes well, Kansas will top the "ARE YOU F#*KING KIDDING ME?" list once again!
