Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD, doubled down on a call to action from Rep. Price at the GLAAD Gala Atlanta

Last week, State Rep. Betty Price suggested that Georgians living with HIV and AIDS should be quarantined and issued a non-apology when called out by advocates.  

NEW YORK – Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, 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. 

Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD: “We are being challenged like we have never been challenged before. 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.

.@Cannonfor58 has a message for GA State Rep. Betty Price (who suggested that people living with HIV and AIDS should be quarantined): “I call on my colleague in the House to apologize for her appalling comments.” pic.twitter.com/XQ33ng8fU8

— GLAAD (@glaad) October 25, 2017

Rep. Park Cannon: “As a queer lawmaker in the South I reject language that stigmatizes people living with or affected by HIV and AIDS. I call on my colleague in the House to apologize for her appalling comments and want the community to know that we still rise in the face of adversity.”

Following GLAAD’s original call for a full apology from Rep. Price for her dangerous fear-mongering, she issued a non-apology, arguing her comments were “taken completely out of context” and that she was being “provocative.”

The time to be provocative is not in a health crisis. This isn’t the apology that HIV patients you endangered with your comments deserve. t.co/MXPZhP2fwC

— Sarah Kate Ellis (@sarahkateellis) October 21, 2017

GLAAD got its start in the midst of the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, fighting back against defamatory media coverage of people living with HIV and AIDS. Since then, GLAAD has sought to lift up and magnify the voices of those working for greater awareness and acceptance of people living with HIV. Price’s remark illustrates the miseducation and stigma that continues to surround this topic. In response to this story, GLAAD worked with AIDS United to create and widely distributed a tip sheet for journalists to ensure media outlets accurately and respectfully report on stories covering HIV and AIDS.