No Magic for LGBTs

Dear BTL,
After working in the HIV/AIDS world for two years now, it never surprises me to witness homophobia and social injustice. I have learned quickly that HIV/AIDS is not just about the virus, but about the oppression of people – inevitably leaving the gay community at risk.
In the last few weeks I had (what I thought was) the honor of seeing the most recognized infected public figure: Magic Johnson. Johnson was my first acknowledgement of the epidemic.
As Magic is living with the virus, I would have thought he would have been inclusive and non-judgmental in his message. However, this was not the case. During an open forum he was asked about the trend of adolescent women having "relations" with other women and how we can lead our girls to a different lifestyle. I thought I was going to hear about risk factors, fluids, and reduction methods. Sadly, Johnson's response was to take them by the hand and lead them to the church and to get on your knees and pray. This left me speechless.
However, what surprised me more was that no one called him on it. Not even our own writer for BTL Brent Dorian Carpenter, who had the opportunity to ask him a question after that biased statement.
No wonder the African American community is so highly infected. Magic, along with the church, is damaging their community. He appears to be this pioneer in the fight against AIDS, however, doesn't appear to be knowledgeable about the virus because if he were he would have known the risk levels for women who have sex with women.
Magic Johnson does not represent the LGBT community. It would be interesting if BTL researched what Magic contributes to the epidemic verses what he gets paid to misrepresent it.
Melissa McDaniel
Dearborn