August 28, 2013 | Sex & Society

Pat Roberston sorry for 'gays wear rings that spread AIDS' comment

The nut job that is televangelist Pat Robertson went on quite the rant yesterday, claiming that gay men in San Francisco wear special rings that allow them to transmit HIV to people who shake their hands.

The 'insight' came when a woman called in to Robertson's show and asked if she should tell her church that a man she was driving to services was dying of AIDS.

Robertson said that AIDS could not be transmitted through casual contact.

But he quickly added: “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. Really. It’s that kind of vicious stuff, which would be the equivalent of murder.”

All aboard to crazy town!

After much criticism, Robertson was forced to apologize (in his characteristic 'I'm sorry you misunderstood' sort of way).

"In my own experience," he said in an e-mail statement, "our organization sponsored a meeting years ago in San Francisco where trained security officers warned me about shaking hands because, in those days, certain AIDS-infected activists were deliberately trying to infect people like me by virtue of rings which would cut fingers and transfer blood.

"I regret that my remarks had been misunderstood, but this often happens because people do not listen to the context of remarks which are being said. In no wise (sic) were my remarks meant as an indictment of the homosexual community or, for that fact, to those infected with this dreadful disease."