Sen. Dole Must Want a Jackass Award: Tries to Name AIDS Bill After Jesse Helms

Posted by Rachel Weiner, Huffington Post at 3:25 AM on July 17, 2008.

Republican Senator Elizabeth Dole introduced an amendment to name an HIV/AIDS relief bill after the recently deceased Jesse Helms. Helms, of course, was a strident foe of HIV/AIDS prevention, research and treatment. The blog Joe.My.God recalls some of Helms' notable moments in AIDS relief:

Jesse Helms, the man who in 1987 described AIDS prevention literature as "so obscene, so revolting, I may throw up."

Jesse Helms, the man who in 1988 vigorously opposed the Kennedy-Hatch AIDS research bill, saying, "There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy."

Jesse Helms, the man who in 1995 said (in opposition to refunding the Ryan White Act) that the government should spend less on people with AIDS because they got sick due to their "deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct."

Jesse Helms, the man who in 2002 announced that he'd changed his mind about AIDS funding for Africa, but not for American gays, because homosexuality "is the primary cause of the doubling and redoubling of AIDS cases in the United States."

In fact, in 1991 seven activists from the group ACT UP put a giant condom on Helms' Arlington home that said "Helms Is Deadlier Than A Virus."

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