Bowman's actions were a frightening abuse of power. It's hard to say what was more shameful: that Chief Bowman assumed Claude Green was HIV positive solely because he was gay, or that Bowman was so ignorant about HIV that he felt you couldn't safely perform CPR on an HIV positive person. |
This loss ... was tragically senseless. He was simply a gay man in Welch, West Virginia. And because of that we can only assume that Chief Bowman assumed he had HIV and it was unsafe to even touch him. |
This was a blanket refusal of care and is the first case like it we know of. |