Beers blasted for ‘racist remark’

Jennifer Knight

Friday, July 25, 2003 | 11:23 a.m.

Assemblyman Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, who has previously made inflammatory comments about Episcopalians and casino workers, took a shot Thursday at an AIDS awareness program aimed at the black community.

Commenting on the fact that the Las Vegas organization Fighting AIDS in our Community Today (FACT) is to receive $250,000 in state money, Beers dismissed it as a program that does little more than give condoms to gay black men.

"From what I understand in the newspapers this FACT program is dedicated to putting condoms on gay men in the black community," Beers said in an interview with the Sun.

In a follow-up e-mail to the Sun, Beers said he was referring to a news report that said the program was targeted at gay black men because, as an ethnic group, they are highly at risk for AIDS.

Fellow assemblymen called the remark uninformed, unnecessary and racist.

"To me it's a racist remark," said Assemblyman Kelvin Atkinson, D-North Las Vegas, who is black. "It's something that shouldn't be tolerated in our district.

"I've said it all along and I believe it: I think (Beers) has some racial issues. Only someone who is that way would let it roll off their tongue like nothing happened, and that's been his behavior ever since the start of the (legislative) session."

Beers said his comments were not racist but descriptive of what the organization does.

"The organization's focus is based, in part, on race so you can't talk about it without talking about race," Beers said.

Assemblyman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, who was responsible for securing the state money for the program, said he was nearly speechless over Beers' remark.

"Boy, Bob shouldn't say things like that," said Arberry, who is black. "It was an unnecessary comment."

Assemblyman David Parks, D-Las Vegas, who is gay, said it's important to set the record straight when comments such as Beers' are made.

"My initial reaction would be it seems to be a very uninformed statement," said Parks, a board member for Aid For AIDS of Nevada (AFAN). "(FACT) is an organization whose main goal is to provide outreach to the minority community to educate them in an effort to reduce the transmission of HIV."

Parks said that 45 percent of AIDS patients in Las Vegas are black and that the main mode of transmission is through heterosexual intercourse with intravenous drug users. There are an estimated 6,000 AIDS patients in Nevada, according to AFAN.

Beers has been in hot political water several times this year.

He first drew fire in February when, in an e-mail to a constituent, he described casino workers as "prone to dropping out of school, reproducing illegitimate children, often while little more than children themselves, abusing drugs and alcohol more frequently, and even killing themselves more often than people who do value education."

Beers was criticized again in March for his response to an Episcopalian bishop who urged lawmakers to address a $704 million shortfall in the state budget.

Beers responded by saying: "There's gotta be more Episcopalian bishops besides you. ... Your opinion is pretty far out there and strikes me as an opinion of a woman with no taxpaying parishioners."

Beers' comment Thursday about the AIDS awareness program came during a discussion about the appropriation of money rolled into Assembly Bill 8, a spending bill, during the last days of the legislative session, which concluded earlier this week in Carson City.

Beers, critical of what he calls legislative pork and "pet projects," characterized the bill as another example of spending money that the state cannot afford.

"There are so many good programs out there, but it's just something that the state cannot do and cannot afford at this time," said Beers, who voted against the bill with 13 other Assembly members. The bill passed.

Beers said he was greatly affected by this bill because he less than a year ago the Clark County School District asked for $500,000 to save extra curricular activities from being cut.

"Do I think the middle school's extra curricular activities are more important than this? Yes I do," Beers said. "It's where the greatest number of people are impacted."

The bill not only includes $250,000 for FACT but also gives $45,000 to the Pediatric Diabetes and Endocrinology Center in Reno and $250,000 to the University of Nevada School of Medicine residency program.

While Assemblyman Jason Geddes, R-Reno, who also voted against the bill, seemed surprised by Beers' comments, he said he voted against the bill because he felt it was not a fiscally prudent measure.

"We were trying to make the budget as tight as we could," Geddes said. "Also, it was trying to get around state laws that say the state can not expend money to private organizations. So they got around it with this appropriation and I thought that was wrong."

Bob Bellis, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada, said he was disappointed by Beers' comment.

"It seems like the more the guy opens his mouth the worse it gets," Bellis said. "The last thing we need is closed-minded politicians stopping people from getting educated and preventing this disease."