PolitiFact: Bryan Fischer Rated A "Pants On Fire" Liar For AIDS Claims

After President Obama mentioned the loss of HIV/AIDS researchers on the downed Malaysian Airlines flight, hate group spokesman Bryan Fischer declared that Obama was "politicizing" their deaths in order to legitimize gay relationships. Fischer went on to claim, "We know how to stop AIDS: persuade men not to have sex with men." PolitiFact looked into Fischer's bullshit and gave him their worst rating as being a "Pants On Fire" liar.

Globally, the dominant form of transmission is heterosexual sex, said Sophie Barton Knott, UNAIDS spokeswoman. Nearly half of people with HIV are female, and most were infected through heterosexual sex. Most of the 50.9 percent of men with HIV got it through heterosexual sex, too, she said. The highest rates of AIDS among 15- to 24-year-olds is among women in many parts of the world, said Seth Faison, spokesman for The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. And in Eastern Europe, the highest transmission rates of AIDS are among people who inject drugs. "Men who have sex with men are a high-risk group, but not the only one," he said. The bottom line? Preventing men from having sex with men will not end AIDS. Faison said the criminalization of same-sex activity actually can increase transmission rates. Being gay is a crime in at least 76 countries, and in those places, gay men are less likely to receive treatment, testing and prevention. The CDC also says stigma and homophobia are likely one factor behind the rise in HIV infections among young gay men in the United States. "In effect, efforts to ‘persuade men not to have sex with men’ is counterproductive," Faison said. "It will not stop AIDS." Fischer’s claim is ridiculous. It rates Pants on Fire.

But we all knew that, of course.