A video of televangelist Pat Robertson claiming that gay men in
San Francisco deliberately spread HIV, the virus that causes AIDS,
with special rings that cut others when shaking hands is back on
YouTube.
The video made by Right Wing Watch (RWW), a project of People for
the American Way, was taken down by YouTube after the Christian
Broadcasting Company (CBN) claimed copyright infringement. According
to a RWW blog post, the network also removed copies posted on
other video sharing sites, including Vimeo.
Robertson's comments were also edited out of a clip of the
broadcast uploaded to YouTube by CBN.
RWW filed a counterclaim with YouTube stating that the video was
protected by fair use. On Thursday, YouTube restored the video.
In the clip, a 700 Club
viewer asks whether it is wrong for her church not to inform her that
she was driving to worship services a man who is “dying of AIDS.”
Robertson reassures the woman that she'll be fine provided she
didn't “have sex with them,” then adds, “unless there's a cut
or some bodily fluid transmission.”
“There are laws now,” Robertson continues. “I think the
homosexual community has put these draconian laws on the books that
prohibit people from discussing this particular affliction. You can
tell somebody you had a heart attack. You can tell them they've got
high blood pressure. But you can't tell anybody you've got AIDS.”
“You know what they do in San Francisco. Some in the gay
community there they want to get people so if they got the stuff
they'll have a ring, you shake hands, and the ring's got a little
thing where you cut your finger,” he added. “Really. It's that
kind of vicious stuff, which would be the equivalent of murder.”
(The video is embedded on this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)
In remarks to The
Atlantic, Robertson said that he “regretted” that his
remarks had been “misunderstood.”
“[T]his often happens because people do not listen to the
context of remarks which are being said,” Robertson
said. “In no [way] were my remarks meant as an indictment of
the homosexual community or, for that fact, to those infected with
this dreadful disease.”
(Related: Anderson
Cooper puts Pat Roberson on Ridiculist over anti-gay comments.)