‘No Politics in AIDS Education’
So our esteemed Assemblyman Pat Nolan (R-Glendale) thinks that teaching kids about AIDS (Part I, Aug. 28) is giving them “a lesson in homosexual sex.”
If we follow Nolan’s logic, then I suppose we should be opposed to educating our teen-agers about the dangers of drunk driving for fear that they will become alcoholics; and God forbid we should support Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” program because obviously it will turn our children into junkies.
This backwards attitude typifies the efforts of the close-minded right to politicize the AIDS issue through fear.
Nolan and Gov. George Deukmejian are substituting political judgment for effective public health policy. By doing so they are jeopardizing the lives of thousands of at-risk youth who as of yet have not been made to understand that certain kinds of behavior could kill them.
I hope the governor, unlike Nolan, can put aside the scare tactics and sign SB 136. Playing politics with an epidemic is not only irresponsible, it’s deadly.
PAUL COOGAN
Glendale
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