{"id":39,"date":"2007-04-28T23:34:08","date_gmt":"2007-04-28T23:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ctblueblog.com\/?p=39"},"modified":"2007-04-28T23:34:08","modified_gmt":"2007-04-28T23:34:08","slug":"another-installment-of-things-you-couldnt-make-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ctblueblog.com\/?p=39","title":{"rendered":"Another installment of &#8220;Things you couldn&#8217;t make up&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From <a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/2007\/04\/28\/tobias-prostitution\/\">Thinkprogress<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Former U.S. AID director Randall Tobias, who resigned yesterday upon admitting that he frequented a Washington escort service, oversaw a controversial policy advocated by the religious right that required any US-based group receiving anti-AIDS funds to take an anti-prostitution \u00e2\u20ac\u0153loyalty oath.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Aid groups bitterly opposed the policy, charging that it \u00e2\u20ac\u0153was so broad \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and applied even to their private funds \u00e2\u20ac\u201d that it would obstruct their outreach to sex workers who are at high risk of transmitting the AIDS virus.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But President Bush wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t budge. He signed a 2003 National Security Presidential Directive saying prostitution \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and related activities\u00e2\u20ac\u009d were \u00e2\u20ac\u0153inherently harmful and dehumanizing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Several groups and countries had their funding cut due to the policy. Brazil lost $40 million for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153one of its most successful anti-AIDS strategies, persuading sex workers to use condoms or other measures to stop spreading the disease.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>During an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ask the White House\u00e2\u20ac\u009d online chat in 2004, Tobias defended the policy, saying the U.S. was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153partnering with communities\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to begin \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fighting sex trafficking and prostitution, while still serving victims of these activities.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Tobias added that he was overseeing several \u00e2\u20ac\u0153highly successful\u00e2\u20ac\u009d relationship programs \u00e2\u20ac\u0153aimed at men and boys to help them develop healthy relationships with women.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From Thinkprogress: Former U.S. AID director Randall Tobias, who resigned yesterday upon admitting that he frequented a Washington escort service, oversaw a controversial policy advocated by the religious right that required any US-based group receiving anti-AIDS funds to take an anti-prostitution \u00e2\u20ac\u0153loyalty oath.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Aid groups bitterly opposed the policy, charging that it \u00e2\u20ac\u0153was so broad [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-republican-corruption"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctblueblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctblueblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctblueblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctblueblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctblueblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ctblueblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctblueblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctblueblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctblueblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}