An economist who was scheduled to
testify before a House panel this week has apologized for proposing
that the government “tax and regulate homosexual acts.”
San Diego State University economist
Joseph Sabia was scheduled to testify on Wednesday at an Education
and Workforce hearing. Sabia, who was picked by the GOP majority,
was expected to discuss the effects of raising the minimum wage to
$15 an hour.
According to Politico, the
committee canceled the hearing after discovering some of Sabia's old
writings.
“Homosexual activity has been
responsible for devastating health outcomes – deadly HIV, hepatitis
B, and various other sexually transmitted diseases,” Sabia wrote in
a 2002 blog post titled “Tax Gay Sex.” “When two random men
get together and choose to have sex, there is not an insignificant
risk of infection and death. And if these infected men then go and
have sex with women, then you have women – and possibly children –
who will be stricken with AIDS.”
“What rational person would engage in
this sort of activity? There is only one solution – let's tax it,”
he added, advocating for a tax on “Big Gay” establishments and
eventually sending “government officials to peep into everyone's
bedroom.”
Sabia also wrote a post titled “College
Girls: Unpaid Whores.”
In a statement given to Politico,
Sabia claimed that his posts were “satirical” and that he could
not be homophobic because he was in a long-term relationship with a
man.
“I regret the hurtful and
disrespectful language I used as a satirical college opinion writer,”
Sabia wrote. But “as an out gay man in a long-term committed
relationship” these “accusations of homophobia … are hurtful to
my family today.”