"Gay sex is a veritable breeding ground for disease"
About this Quote
The line’s specific intent is to collapse a wide spectrum of queer lives into a single, stigmatized act, then attach fear to it. Parsley doesn’t say “unprotected sex” or “risky behavior.” He says “gay sex,” turning identity into pathology. That rhetorical shortcut has a long history in American culture, especially in the wake of the AIDS crisis, when public confusion and government neglect left space for preachers and pundits to narrate the epidemic as punishment rather than policy failure. The quote echoes that era’s ugliest logic: sickness as evidence.
The subtext is also political. When a celebrity pastor says this, he’s not merely “warning” people; he’s defining who counts as clean, and therefore who deserves full citizenship. It’s a boundary-making sentence, designed to rally an in-group through disgust. The tragedy is that it borrows the authority of health while undermining actual health: stigma doesn’t reduce disease, it drives people away from testing, care, and honest education.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Parsley, Rod. (2026, January 16). Gay sex is a veritable breeding ground for disease. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/gay-sex-is-a-veritable-breeding-ground-for-disease-116562/
Chicago Style
Parsley, Rod. "Gay sex is a veritable breeding ground for disease." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/gay-sex-is-a-veritable-breeding-ground-for-disease-116562/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Gay sex is a veritable breeding ground for disease." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/gay-sex-is-a-veritable-breeding-ground-for-disease-116562/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.





