The irony here is so intense, there really is nothing more than I can say....

Helms pledges to make AIDS a priority
Ann Rostow, Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network
Thursday, February 21, 2002 / 12:40 PM
SUMMARY: Speaking to an audience of 800 Christian AIDS activists, Sen. Jesse Helms said he had been "too lax, too long in doing something really significant" about AIDS.

Speaking to an audience of 800 Christian AIDS activists on Wednesday afternoon in Washington D.C., Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., said he had been "too lax, too long in doing something really significant" about AIDS.

"I'm so ashamed that I have done so little," he said.

The retiring lawmaker, one of the staunchest conservatives in public office, pledged: "I am not going to lay it aside on my agenda for the remaining months I have in office."

Helms's remarks, said Human Rights Campaign (HRC) spokesman David Smith, were "intriguing, coming from an individual who has done more to ensure that the disease has gone unchecked � and done more harm to people with AIDS than any other person."

Helms has earned a zero rating from the gay rights lobbying group, and Smith adds, "you can add four exclamation points" to the score.

Helms "has thwarted at every turn an effective prevention strategy for curtailing the spread of AIDS," says Smith. "In the mid-eighties, the government knew how the disease was spread, but because of the extreme anti-gay prejudice of Jesse Helms and others like him, the government did not execute a prevention campaign to teach people how not to become infected, and as a result, people died." Jesse Helms, says Smith, "was primarily responsible" for the government inaction that allowed the epidemic to run rampant.

Yesterday's mea culpa was pronounced at the Prescription for Hope conference, organized by Franklin Graham and the Samaritan's Purse relief agency that Graham heads.

"Sermons about how to avoid AIDS are good but provide no solace to those 40 million already infected with the virus," says Graham, son of the evangelist Billy Graham, on the conference Web site. "As the church of Christ, we must reach out with open arms in love, encouragement and compassion rather than condemnation."

Helms made no reference to sexual orientation during his talk, instead noting that there is "no substitute for the joy brought by strong and healthy marriages," and instructing the audience "not to hesitate to share this truth," with others.


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