In an incomprehensible detour from logic, MP for the City of Bridgetown and Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, Patrick Todd, has called on his colleagues in the House of Assembly to declare their sexual orientation.

Todd’s comments came during debate on a resolution for a US$35m loan to finance Government’s second HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Project, which (one hopes) does not involve chasing Barbadians out of the closet as a means of controlling the disease.

In his curious submission to parliament, Todd stressed the need for MPs to be “good role models”, claiming that there is too much sexual behaviour in Barbados which promotes promiscuity, and that “current trends” (read: homosexuality?) need to be stopped immediately.

Further defying his post as an education ‘expert’, Todd even found the time to make a backward swipe against the distribution of condoms in prison, claiming that their availability would increase sexual activity among inmates – ignorant, it seems, to the high prevalence of rape and forced sex behind bars.

In a speech that went on to include other zingers such as “condoms are not made for anal sex”, Todd descended into further incoherencies on the use of the internet for the procurement of sex, while stating that he  supported the construction of a minimum security prison for no other reason than to reduce the incidence of promiscuity among inmates. Indeed, even on the only relevant topic  in his speech – the issue of antiretroviral drugs -  Todd again managed to skirt all intelligence as he lauded the drugs for their ability to delay the disease’s progression,  but could find no other benefit for this outcome other than “decreasing finger pointing” towards people living with HIV/AIDS.

Not only should Patrick Todd be banned from public speaking, but his cabinet colleagues would do well to distance themselves from his inane comments, lest one misinterprets this government’s HIV/AIDS policy as one that now sees the virus as a homosexual disease, while encouraging the naming and branding of homosexuals to stem its spread. At the same time, cabinet may also wish to reassure Barbadians that the proposed measures to reduce the stigma of HIV/AIDS are a bit more intellectually complex than merely providing drug therapy, so that persons living with the disease look healthy enough not to be jeered at in public.

In the interim, Minister Todd may also find it beneficial to take a lesson on the varied uses of condoms (in the vagina, anus and mouth), as well as the more relevant benefits of antiretroviral drugs – a lesson which he now deserves to take from the backbenches of parliament.

Antillean · Bridgetown, Barbados

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