Doomed to Repeat It

This sounds all too familiar, but I can't really place the source of my deja vu:

The leader of a conservative Christian lobby group appears to suggest that gays should be required to wear warning labels, although he denies that was his intention.

"We put warning labels on cigarette packs because we know that smoking takes one to two years off the average life span, yet we 'celebrate' a lifestyle that we know spreads every kind of sexually transmitted disease and takes at least 20 years off the average life span according to the 2005 issue of the revered scientific journal Psychological Reports," Rev. Bill Banuchi, executive director of the New York Christian Coalition told the Mid Hudson News.

Hmmm. I still can't place where I may have heard about something like this before. Maybe one of you readers can help me out.

Via Chris.

Comments

[Michael Bérubé]

I think this is Clinton's fault. He's the one who insisted we put those warning labels on cigarette packs.

[InsanePreschoolMom]

Holy crap.

And this is coming from a good Christian girl (well, mostly Christian, but religious nonetheless, and on the liberal side, but still, HOLY CRAP).

I suggest now that we get IDIOT ARMBANDS. Or maybe we can just brand their arms.

[choc]

perhaps you are remembering the yellow stars that Jews were required to wear on their coats by the Nazis in Hitler's Germany?

[Greg]

At this point, I think wearing a pink triangle would be a more courageous and confrontational attack on the establishmnet than anything some bigoted Christian official could dream up. That's how they see us anyway...why not shove it in their face? Turn it around and make it a weapon.

[Shawn]

So what's next...that I have to watch out for second-hand...err, nevermind...

[patrick]

So what's next...that I have to watch out for second-hand...err, nevermind...

BWAHAHA! ...ew.

[doghouse riley]

And here I thought Psychological Reports couldn't get any more revered.

[Shiny]

I was intrigued by the mention of Psychological Reports and found an analysis of different academic psychological publications here. It's interesting to note that its rank among its peer publications is quite low; that there's a low rejection rate of articles; and that those who submit articles must pay for placement. In other words, it sounds like an easy way for someone without as much academic credibility to place his/her "paid advertisemnet" in a publication.

Things that make you go "Hmmmm..."

[Vache Folle]

We already have the equivalent of IDIOT ARMBANDS, the little ribbon magnets on the backs of cars.

[Chris Clarke]

Vache Folle, there is a cure for idiot magnet proliferation.

[Billmon]

In Nazi Germany, national or public health -- Volksgesundheit -- took complete precedence over individual health care. Physicians and medically trained academics, many of whom were proponents of "racial hygiene", or eugenics, legitimized and helped to implement Nazi policies aiming to "cleanse" German society of people viewed as biologic threats to the nation's health.

In the Name of Public Health: Nazi Racial Hygiene
Susan Bachrach
New England Journal of Medicine
July 2004

[Kevin T. Keith]

You might also want to add to your list William F. Buckley's explicit call, repeated at least three times in 1986 and 1987, that all gay men be tested without consent for HIV, and those testing positive be forcibly tattooed on the buttocks and shoulder. (The link explicitly parallels it with Nazism. Scroll down.)

He repeated the same suggestion just 4 months ago.

[Zeit Geist]

Oy

[Andrew Spark]

There's inequality among different groups of people, and it should be addressed in a different and more effective way.