The other day I went to the website about the upcoming film "Heart of the Beholder," a film about the turmoil a family had to go through upon becoming the victims of Fanatical Fundy Freaks. It's an interesting and true tale about groups like American Family Association going on a Farenheit 451 like purge of anything considered indecent in video form. Not surprising Kansas Senator Sam Brownback still continues that fascist legacy with his continued assaults on Hollywood and cries for censorship because he believes the government should tell adults what they are allowed to watch.

Anyway, before I digress further, their FAQ linked to an AFA press release where the AFA claimed people could acquire STDs from the boxes of videos from porn shops. It sounded like a repeat of the 1980s scare tactics that people could catch AIDS from toilet seats. Always searching for the facts and truth in obsurd fundy claims (readers of American Atheist magazine may have read our story where we debunked the myth that Atheists haven't built hospitals) we figured we'd challenge this claim as well.

The first claim in the press release comes from the Mississipi State Department of Health's Mary Currier who claims the problem, "is something we have had to confront before." Keep in mind Mississipi stresses abstinence education rather than sex education and has no requirements to teach the facts about HIV/AIDS, hence it has a higher number of HIV cases than states of similiar size that teach sex education.

The Maggot Punks contacted the Mississipi State Department of Health about AFA's absurd claim and this is the response we received from Craig Thompson who heads the HIV/AIDS Bureau:

"While I cannot comment for Dr. Currier, I am familiar with the work that was done by the health department to respond to the allegations submitted by the American Family Association (AFA). The STD/HIV Bureau sent investigators to video rental shops at all of the addresses provided by the AFA and reviewed their operations. Nothing was found that would suggest that fresh semen, fresh blood, or any other body fluid capable of transmitting HIV was present on the media covers sampled at random. The CDC HIV/AIDS Surveillance staff was queried for any related transmission information. There was none and, at that time, this scenario was not even in their listing of "HIV/AIDS hoaxes." The likelihood of HIV transmission occurring in this fashion is incredibly remote. The primary mode of HIV transmission in Mississippi is through unprotected sexual activity (greater than 90%). Should you desire additional information regarding HIV modes of transmission, the CDC web site (www.cdc.gov)."

Perhaps AFA was talking about some other Mississipi State Department of Health because this one says AFA is lying. AFA is practicing the same old scare tactics that were so prevalent in the 1980s where people were afraid to use toilet seats because they were told they could catch the HIV virus. This particular scare tactic is intended to frighten people into renting pornography and working at pornographic shops, clearly AFA's mere boycott of porn store chain wasn't working so they had to use lies to appeal to people's fears.

On the other front was the claim that employees contracted Hepatitis B from infected box covers. Quoted was the Hepatitis B Foundation in an effort to support such claims. I contacted this organization and this was their reply, "To the best of my knowledge, there are no actual cases of hepatitis B being transmitted in this manner."

So if nobody can find any cases of people being infected by dirty porn covers why make a fuss about it? Simple, AFA is lying to you in an effort to scare you.

The fact is the HIV virus can't exist outside the host. AFA is lying to everyone. This is nothing new, AFA is one of the most vocal anti-abortion groups and works closely with other fascist organizations like Operation Rescue (AFA has provided attornies for Antis charged with crimes related to their terroristic activities). As the Maggot Punks have said before, if the Antis had truth on their side they wouldn't need to resort to lies.

Book of the day: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Seizing Power in the Age of the Internet by Joe Trippi

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