Wilson Caves In to Homophobic Right : Bias: When society refuses to recognize a gay person’s right to work, other basic rights will also fall by the wayside.

When Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed AB 101, which would have prohibited workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, he did more than consign with the stroke of a pen a huge segment of the state’s population to economic second-class citizenship. By capitulating to the most reactionary fringe elements of society, Wilson has also dealt a deadly blow to the effort to contain California’s worsening AIDS epidemic.

Make no mistake about it, if Gov. Wilson can be cowered into political submission by the likes of Rep. William Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) and Lou Sheldon, lobbyist for the Traditional Values coalition, it seems likely that the governor will also cave in on other high-priority issues on the extremist agenda.

Emboldened by their political ascendancy, these radical-right forces will try once again to seize control of the AIDS debate, picking up where the discredited Lyndon LaRouche left off. But this time, they have a compliant accomplice sitting in the governor’s office. Their agenda includes the threat of ineffective, expensive and widespread mandatory testing; a retreat on AIDS prevention and education; the erosion of confidentiality and privacy rights, and cutbacks in government support for critically needed research, treatment and care.

All of the political skirmishing aside, there is a far more insidious and dangerous consequence of the governor’s decision to veto this legislation.

AIDS experts agree that fear--fear of one’s own sexuality and fear of discrimination--is the single most important factor obstructing at-risk individuals from being tested and seeking needed treatment for HIV infection. It’s called homophobia, and it kills just as surely and swiftly as the HIV virus itself.

There are people dying in our hospices who have been abandoned by their families, because their families could not accept the sexuality of their children. There are people dying in our hospices whose lives could have been prolonged for years with earlier treatment. These are people who would not, or could not, face their illness and seek treatment, because to do so would have meant facing up to their sexuality--a sexuality that they have been taught is shameful and to be experienced only in the dark, anonymously, and on mind-numbing drugs. Homophobia and self-hate go hand in hand.

In Los Angeles County, where a full 87% of all cases of AIDS are among gay or bisexual men, the twin forces of homophobia and discrimination are driving the AIDS epidemic underground. This is particularly true in the minority communities of Los Angeles where culturally reinforced homophobia undermines young gay people’s dignity and self-esteem. Health educators whose job it is to bring life-saving information to people who need to be protected from HIV infection cannot do their jobs if they cannot convince these people that their lives are worth saving.

Moreover, when society refuses to recognize something as basic as a gay person’s right to work, it follows that other basic rights--the right to compassionate and affordable health care for people with AIDS, for example--will also fall by the wayside. In this case, second-class citizenship translates into third-class care for people with AIDS.

Gov. Wilson’s veto of AB 101 sanctions the kind of homophobia that kills. Notwithstanding his flaccid denunciation of anti-gay bigots in his veto message, Wilson might as well have had his own hands on the bats of every gay-basher. He made it clear that when it really counts our state government will back down in the face of bigotry. By condoning and affirming the right of employers to discriminate against gay people in the workplace, Gov. Wilson has struck a deadly blow against people with AIDS.