WASHINGTON -- Former Sen. Jesse Helms might have had a personal evolution on AIDS policy, but the journey wasn't enough to stop protests when his successor tried to name a global AIDS relief bill after him.
Sen. Elizabeth Dole, a Salisbury Republican, introduced an amendment to add Helms, who died July 4, to the title of a $50 billion bill considered Wednesday in the Senate. Her measure never came up for a vote.
Helms, a deeply conservative Republican from Raleigh, was the frequent nemesis of gay activists. "There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy," he once said.
He changed his view on foreign relief programs late in his Senate career and teamed with Irish rock star Bono to help populations suffering from the disease overseas. "Senator Helms played a critical role in moving the U.S. into a position where it's devoting substantial resources to provide aid to those in need in Africa," Dole's spokesman Wes Climer said.
But the legislation was already named after two lawmakers who fought the spread of AIDS, former Reps. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., and Tom Lantos, D-Calif.
A spokesman for the Global AIDS Alliance said Dole's attempt to honor Helms was inappropriate. "There are aspects of his legacy that are very negative when it comes to HIV prevention," David Bryden said. "It is true that Helms toward the very end of his career started to show more compassion, particularly toward mothers and children affected by this disease. But we're still dealing with a legacy of Senator Helms when it comes to the HIV epidemic amongst injecting drug users."
Bryden said Helms fought needle exchanges and other programs that AIDS activists say are proven ways to curb the spread of the disease.
Sensation on the blogs
Dole's amendment, quietly introduced Monday, was first reported Wednesday by the Huffington Post. Word spread quickly through the blogosphere, where there was a proliferation of Helms quotes such as his 1995 comments to The New York Times, which quoted him as saying people got AIDS due to "deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct."
"We've got to have some common sense about a disease transmitted by people deliberately engaging in unnatural acts," Helms, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the Times.
Asked why it was appropriate to name the bill after Helms, Dole's office referred to a 2002 article in the San Francisco Chronicle that described how Helms changed his position on helping Africans with AIDS after befriending Bono, the U2 singer who has become virtually synonymous with the cause.
Helms was quoted as telling Christian activists, "I have been too lax too long in doing something really significant about AIDS."
(When Helms died earlier this month, Bono left a voicemail for John Dodd, director of the Jesse Helms Center in Wingate, saying, "There are 2 million people alive in Africa today because Jesse Helms did the right thing.")
Still, in the same Chronicle article, Helms didn't soften his stance about fighting AIDS at home among people who acquired the infection through homosexual activity.
"I don't have any idea on changing my views on that kind of activity, which is the primary cause of the doubling and redoubling of AIDS cases in the United States," Helms said.
Climer said Dole's amendment wasn't considered because she introduced it too late -- after a procedural move had already determined which changes could be considered.
"Every single member of the Senate co-sponsored a resolution honoring Senator Helms' legacy in the wake of his passing, but that doesn't mean they support every single thing he may have done or said -- and that includes Senator Dole," Climer said.
"Senator Dole admires and respects Senator Helms' groundbreaking work to lead the fight against the AIDS crisis in Africa and wanted to honor his contributions to that cause with this amendment."
