"The View" Askew - Sherri Shepherd and D.L. Hughley Trash Black Gay Men

Whoopi Goldberg and Barbara Walters were absent from yesterday's View, and in their place the show brought in not one but two guys as guest hosts. The unusual influx of testosterone, if anything, made the "Hot Topics" section even more irritating than usual.

Guest host D.L. Hughley brought up the FDA's recent decision to continue the ban on gay men donating blood. He also touched on the question posed by a recent Slate article: Since the African-American community has a much higher incidence of AIDS than the general population, should blacks too be barred from giving blood?

Now that's an interesting question, because it's so untenable a suggestion that it helps to illuminate how wrong-headed the ban on gay men donating blood is.

Unfortunately, the ladies (and men) of The View never actually engaged that question. Instead, Hughley and Sherri Shepherd brought it up merely to expound on why the African-American community has a higher incidence of HIV/AIDS. Turns out it's because of black men "on the down low!" Yeah, that's right, it's another round of blame the gays.

No one else on the panel really questioned that position (that down low black gay men are the source of HIV/AIDS in the African-American community). This of course completely ignores heterosexual transmission, intravenous drug use, etc.

At least Elisabeth Hasselbeck bothered to ask why black men are more likely to be on the down low, and Sherri and D.L. were quick to say that gay men were heavily stigmatized in the African-American community. They totally missed the irony that they were doing the stigmatizing themselves!

You know there's a problem when Elisabeth Hasselbeck
is the voice of reason on The View panel.

Out gay news anchor Thomas Roberts was also on the panel, but he wasn't much help. He pointed out that gay men are stigmatized in the white community too. He came out at 27 and had dated women to try and hide his sexual orientation.

Joy asked him if he'd also been on the down low and having sex with men all those years he was in the closet. And he said, "no."  Hmmm.

The segment ends with D.L. Hughley saying the FDA's ban on gay men donating blood was a "medical decision" and he for one would defer to medical professionals. So if the FDA says it – it must be right and proper. 

Oh, the whole thing made me want to toss my TV out the window.

You can watch the segment after the break, but prepare to be incensed.