“In terms of the people who have been yelling the loudest about this, they’ve all been associated with bareback porn,” Weinstein told BuzzFeed.
The leader of the nation’s largest community HIV/AIDS healthcare organization stands by sharp words he had for a drug that has been approved for its potential to prevent the transmission of HIV — comments that some doctors and activists say are “irresponsible” and even led to a petition demanding his resignation.
“I’ve had debates on this subject, but these people are jumping to character assassination and I’m not going to respond to it,” said Michael Weinstein, president of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the largest HIV/AIDS medical care provider in the U.S. “My record and the record of AHF speaks for itself.”
Outrage erupted among activists and healthcare advocates after Weinstein referred to Truvada, a pill that has been proven to be effective in reducing the transmission of HIV when taken daily, as “a party drug” in an April 7 article by the Associated Press detailing some of the differing views on the HIV prevention method. “If something comes along that’s better than condoms, I’m all for it, but Truvada is not that,” he said.
Weinstein, who has long been a critic of the blue pill, has no intentions of stepping aside or quieting down and blames much of the backlash he’s received on what he said is the “bareback porn industry.” Michael Lucas, creator of one of the largest gay porn companies, Lucas Entertainment, also called for Weinstein to leave his job in an op-ed published by Out magazine.
“In the last few days in terms of the people who have been yelling the loudest about this, they’ve all been associated with bareback porn,” he said. “They’re all associated with bareback porn, which kind of makes my point that it’s a party drug.”
According to Lucas, Weinstein should be removed from his post immediately, saying, “Mr. Weinstein knows how to portray PrEP, along with gay men, in the most unattractive light,” Lucas wrote. “… In Mr. Weinsteing’s eyes, PrEP isn’t about public health. It’s just a highly expensive way for those horny, irresponsible gays to go back to their barebacking-gone-wild.”
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