Editor’s note: May 7 hosted the City Club of Cleveland Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a moderated forum. The moderator was Brad Wenstrup, executive director of Americans for Health Excellence and former Republican congressman from Ohio. During the forum, Secretary Kennedy described hepatitis B as primarily affecting “high-risk groups such as drug addicts, prostitutes, or promiscuous homosexuals.” The following letter is a response to this forum and is addressed to Dan Moulthop, CEO of City Club.
Alfred Cowger
AND:
Yesterday’s forum was a disaster, and the City Club clearly contributed to this disaster.
The City Club has once again invited a speaker who would undoubtedly arouse controversy, as he has been repeatedly criticized for bending the truth and ignoring basic scientific methods in order to promote his programmatic follies. There is nothing wrong with the decision to invite him, especially since this speaker is the Secretary of HHS, whose decisions affect the health and lives of millions of Americans.
The City Club has completely failed in its mandate to promote a “marketplace of ideas” by ensuring that Kennedy’s statements and assertions go unchallenged. Instead, the forum’s “moderator” was simply a former GOP congressman who is now the executive director of a lobbying group promoting Trump’s philosophical folly for a nationwide health program. It goes without saying that the moderator had no intention of moderating anything, let alone intentionally correcting any of Kennedy’s erroneous statements of fact, or bluntly applauding Kennedy’s misguided policies as having no scientific or health value. As a result, the City Club has not fulfilled its mission since accepting this forum structure.
The City Club should have learned from its mistakes at the Center for Christian Virtues. The City Club should have kept its promise to the organizations that protested against the “moderation” of the CCV forum to do better next time. Kennedy’s speech was literally another time, but the City Club chose to ignore the lessons learned from the CCV forum and renege on promises to its members and community organizations to do better in the future. As a result, the City Club was not just a sucker exploited by Kennedy, but became a willing participant in the promotion of another threatening and defamatory right-wing propaganda fest.
In fact, the City Club confirmed its willingness to participate in this sham by allowing its rules regarding audience participation and conduct to be violated not once, but twice. The moderator allowed Kennedy to ramble until half of the allotted question-and-answer time was lost, thus ensuring that Kennedy would not have to face many complex questions from an audience full of irate health experts and policy wonks.
Then, at the end of the question-and-answer session, the Kennedy sycophant was allowed to announce extended adulation of Kennedy, which was clearly not a question. Worse yet, even though her mic was disabled due to the passage of time, you actually allowed her mic to be re-enabled. So not only did you allow her to violate the rules of decency so clearly announced before the forum, but you aided in that violation by turning the microphone back on so she could violate the rules with amplification. If the questioner looked like a juvenile protester in a disdainful T-shirt and dreadlocks, would you be so obsequious as to turn the microphone back on?
In the future, the City Club will need to check the definition of “moderator” and then check the definition of “cheerleader.” If you really want the former, don’t choose the latter when organizing forums. In fact, don’t advertise the forum as “moderated.”
Instead, acknowledge that the City Club is giving up its stage and Q&A microphones, and thus its reputation, to an hour of uncritical propaganda. At least this way, participants like me won’t waste time commuting to the center and paying for parking and attending this propaganda fest that I would otherwise skip.
The City Club is committing false advertising by claiming that a “moderator” will attend the meeting. Consideration should be given to refunding entry fees paid by people like me who thought this was going to be a moderated event. Worse yet, City Club risks its reputation and mission as a bastion and defender of Free Speech if City Club forums continue to be transformed into events that are nothing more than pandering to right-wing propaganda performances.
Finally, as a member and supporter of the City Club, I am owed an apology for Kennedy’s claim that hepatitis B was the result of “homosexual promiscuity.” This statement not only perpetuates the stereotype that gays are nothing more than sex workers, but allows homophobes like Kennedy to blame the victims instead of using proven remedies, i.e. infant vaccinations, to address the health crisis.
I lived through the early years of the AIDS epidemic when the Reagan administration chose to blame my friends, neighbors, and clients dying of AIDS for their terrible deaths, rather than actually doing anything to meaningfully respond to this health crisis. It was a dim and painful time for the LGBTQ+ community in Cleveland.
City Club owes Cleveland’s LGBTQ+ community, including me, an apology for once again enduring this offensive and hateful rhetoric. 🔥
Alfred Cowger is a lawyer, lecturer and advisor on civil rights, the history and interpretation of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and the impact of artificial intelligence on American jurisprudence.
