NEW YORK, N.Y. – Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, condemned Georgia State Rep. Betty Price for her vicious remarks suggesting that Georgians living with HIV and AIDS should be “quarantined” on Wednesday evening at the 2017 GLAAD Gala Atlanta, a celebration of national and local leaders working to accelerate acceptance of the LGBTQ community in the South.
“We are being challenged like we have never been challenged before,” said Ellis. “Just last week during a house committee meeting in this very city, I think you all know what I am talking about, Georgia State Representative Betty Price suggested that Georgians living with HIV should be quarantined. Quarantined. GLAAD and other advocates called for an apology. We went to CNN, we went to USA Today. She responded with a non-apology. That’s unacceptable. LGBTQ people and people living with HIV in Georgia deserve much, much better. I am here tonight to double down on our call to action from Representative Price. How about an early retirement like her husband?”
LGBTQ Georgia State Representatives Park Cannon and Sam Park, along with HIV advocate Amazin LêThị also joined GLAAD in Atlanta to condemn the spread of misinformation and stigma that continues to surround the topic of HIV and AIDS and to denounce the dangerous comments by Rep. Price, who is the wife of Former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price.
