Sherri Shepherd and DL Hughley’s Incorrect Statements on HIV

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, AOL Black Voices

GLAAD, the Gay-Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, has gone hard against ABC and "The View" about recent comments made by host Sherri Shepherd and guest host DL Hughley. On the show, which aired June 22, Shepherd and Hughley linked the high rate of HIV among straight women in the black community to black men being on the "downlow," or having sex with other men in private.

"When you look at the prevalence of HIV in the African-American community, it's primarily young women who are getting it from men who are on the down-low," Hughley said. He mentioned this while discussing the recent FDA ban on gay and bi-sexual men donating blood.
"[African-American men] are having sex with men, and they're not telling their girlfriends or their wives that they're gay," said Shepherd. Three groups: GLAAD, the National Black Justice Coalition and the Black AIDS institute have put out full page ads in Variety, stating that the information shared on The View is inaccurate.

"The Centers for Disease Control has publicly disproven this myth. And since June 22, thousands of people have written to ABC, asking that The View provide correct information to viewers," the ad reads. "Unfortunately, those requests have been greeted with silence from both ABC and The View. When The View talks about these kinds of issues, people listen. And there's a responsibility that comes with that."

Members of the scientific community are also backing the viewpoints of GLAAD and other groups who've protested The View.

Click to read.