Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may be the nation’s next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services if confirmed by the U.S. Senate. While he’s most known for being an anti-vaxxer, over the years, he’s also engaged in AIDS denialism.
The Democrat turned independent turned Donald Trump supporter missed the lesson on correlation not equaling causation when he claimed that poppers led to the AIDS crisis.
LGBTQ publication Them reported on how President-elect Trump’s pick for HHS spread this misinformation while drawing a debunked, decades-old conspiracy.
“One hundred percent of the people who died — the first thousand who had AIDS were people who were addicted to poppers,” Kennedy informed a group of supporters in a video shared by PatriotTakes in 2023. “There were people that were part of a gay lifestyle, where they were burning the candle at both ends [...] and there were poppers on sale everywhere at the gay bars.”
Poppers are a group of chemical inhalants that are officially sold as video game cleaner or nail polish remover. They are famously used as party drugs and sex enhancers in the queer community due to their effects of short-lived euphoria and muscle relaxation.
According to Mother Jones, Kenney’s 2021 book “The Real Anthony Fauci” heavily quoted the work of Berkeley professor Peter Duesberg, an infamous AIDS denialist.
AIDS denialism is a fringe theory that disputes the fact that HIV causes AIDS.
When gay men started showing up with Kaposi’s sarcoma, a type of cancer that causes skin lesions, early in the AIDS epidemic, some early theories suggested KS was linked to the use of poppers.
Fred Fejes, FAU emeritus professor and queer studies scholar, dismantled Kennedy’s claim, pointing out how outdated and repeatedly debunked the claim linking poppers to AIDS is.
“That argument was made in the early 1980s, when he probably first paid attention to AIDS. It’s been disproven over and over and over again,” Fejes said.
Fejes isn’t surprised Trump chose someone who spreads misinformation.
“It shows [Trump’s] lack of knowledge or ignorance or incompetence,” he said. “It’s the same kind of argument he made about treating COVID with bleach, people drank bleach! It’s the same kind of simplistic ignorant understanding of how the body works, how medicine works, and I think that he has no appreciation of medicine. Health is a very complex thing, you have to have people know that. His appointment of RFK is a reflection of that.”
Poppers have become as iconic as they are misunderstood. Even pop star Troye Sivan nods to their cultural significance in his song “Rush,” named after a popular brand.
While frequent use of poppers can cause physical health issues such as vision loss or bronchitis, AIDS is not one of them. Poppers may contribute to riskier sexual behavior, such as condomless sex. But that’s hardly exclusive to poppers or the queer community.
Alcohol, one of the most accessible substances, is known for its ability to lower inhibitions. Similar to poppers, it's not the substance itself, but the impaired judgment it causes that heightens the risks.
Kennedy’s rhetoric isn’t just misinformed, but also perpetuates a dangerous pattern of oversimplifying complex public health issues. It’s important to note Kennedy is not a doctor – he’s an environmental lawyer.
“RFK Jr. is not a dumb guy. It’s one of those problems that you can have somebody very smart about an area and feel that he's discovered the truth. And run with it. I've seen that happen, unfortunately,” Fejes said. “He’s not qualified to be health secretary, and I think the nation’s health would be in danger with him in office.”
