Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones claimed
on Sunday that spreading HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is part of
gay culture.
On his The Alex Jones Show radio
program, Jones railed against a new California law signed last week
by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown that reduces the penalty for
knowingly exposing a sexual partner to HIV, without disclosure, from
a felony to a misdemeanor.
Such laws hearken back to when little
was known about the disease and few treatments existed. According to
the Los Angeles Times, HIV was the only communicable disease
for which it was a felony to expose a person without disclosure.
Public health experts believe that the law discouraged people from
knowing their status and added to the stigma of HIV.
“I want to get into the psychology of
the insane Democratic Party here, because when HIV goes from lowered
numbers like it is to exploding in the next five years, in a few
years, if we’re still here, as a planet, don’t have nuclear war,
I will go back to this show and say here I am in 2017 saying within
three to five years California will have a 200 percent increase in
HIV,” Jones
told his listeners.
“And they will also complain and say
we need single-payer, we need socialist health care, the reason we
have HIV is because we don’t have free health care. No, the reason
you have HIV is because it is a culture now in the gay community –
that I first read about 20 years ago in Rolling Stone – to
give other people HIV. It’s truly nihilistic. So here’s the
article: 'Progress:' – LA Times – 'Knowingly exposing
others to HIV no longer a felony in California.' It’s the same
thing as a parking ticket, so it’s essentially legalized.”
“This is a religion. This is
satanism, folks. Because if they can get away with this, they can get
away with anything. This is totally insane,” he added.
“Bug chasing” and “gift giving”
have been largely dismissed by HIV experts as a very rare phenomenon.
(Related: Speaking
about transgender people, Alex Jones says he doesn't “hate mentally
ill people.”)