Anthony Fauci calls out “extraordinary stigma” gays face while standing right in front of Mike Pence
Fauci praised LGBTQ people’s “strength and activism” during the HIV epidemic as Pence loomed over his left shoulder.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the most prominent members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, praised the “incredible courage and dignity and strength and activism” LGBTQ people showed during the HIV epidemic in the face of “extraordinary stigma.”
He made the comments while standing right in front of Mike Pence, one of the U.S.’s best known sources of anti-gay stigma.
Fauci was talking about how coronavirus will affect certain disadvantaged communities more than the general population, particularly African Americans. In Michigan, for example, African Americans represent 35% of all coronavirus cases and 40% of coronavirus deaths even though they only make up 14% of the state’s population.
Since Fauci, as one of the country’s foremost infectious diseases experts, has spent the better of his career fighting HIV, he made the connection to how that disease affected LGBTQ people.