Republican Senator Elizabeth Dole wants to rename the international AIDS legislation after the now-dead arch-conservative, gay-hating racist Jesse Helms. Yes, Helms, who was more than happy to let gay people with AIDS die during the 80s and 90s, did finally embrace the international AIDS cause, in so far as the "victims" that interested him were "innocent children." But that's the only reason Helms got on board, because kids were involved and they were innocent "victims," as compared to the rest of those with AIDS who, according to Helms, deserved what they got. Look, I get the importance of using conservatives to sugar coat and inoculate liberal proposals. It makes it much harder for Republicans to oppose a bill named after Jesse Helms. But at some point, moral decency demands you draw a line. Jesse Helms was a pig. A racist, bigoted pig. He not only represented a crystallization of the worst of America, he went out of his way to promote policies that would have thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of men and women with AIDS in America. To name any AIDS bill, even an international one, after one of America's most infamous AIDS-haters, strikes me as beyond the pale, regardless of how much it might help build support on the right for the legislation. At some point, expediency has to yield to common decency. Jesse Helms, now dead, was a hateful, racist, gay-bashing pig. It's time to bury Jesse Helms, not praise him.
UPDATE: One legacy of the Jesse Helms era was his bill that enacted a ban on foreign visitors with HIV from entering the United States. Amazingly, that is still the law. But, there is legislation to change it in the Senate right now. It would be an amendment to the same bill Liddy Dole is trying to name for Helms. But, the end of the ban would be real progress and one more chance to defeat the Helms legacy of hate. HRC has an action alert here.
