A Republican Senator from North Carolina quietly introduced an amendment last week to name a Holocaust Reparation bill after Adolf Hitler.  The U.S. Senate passed the reparation bill, allotting $48 billion in aid and restitution to survivors of Hitler’s genocidal campaign.

Unbelievable? Replace the words Holocaust Reparation Act with the HIV/AIDS Relief Bill and change the name Adolf Hitler to Senator Jesse Helms and the headline is accurate, but no less absurd! 

The ridiculously incongruent attempt by North Carolina Republican Senator Elizabeth Dole’s to rename an HIV/AIDS relief bill after the recently deceased  Helms has offended the sensibilities of a wide cross-section of Americans, including gays, blacks, Latinos and those affected by HIV/AIDS. 

In an effort to justify Dole’s name change amendment Wes Climer, the Senator’s spokesman, lauded Helms’ efforts late in his political career to pass AIDS relief legislation for Africa.  “Senator Dole admires and respects Senator Helms’ groundbreaking work to lead the fight against the AIDS crisis in Africa and wanted to honor his contribution to that cause with this amendment,” said Climer. 

WTF?  Let’s consider Helms’ groundbreaking work that Dole is so anxious to honor.  In 1988 Senator Helms 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.” 

In explaining his opposition to refunding the Ryan White Act in 1995, Helms said that the government should spend less on people with AIDS because they got sick due to their “deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct.”  In other words, the young man for whom the bill was named, a hemophiliac who acquired HIV from a contaminated blood treatment, got what he deserved.   

"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,” Climer explained, noting a personal evolution of the Senator’s views on AIDS funding.   

But Climer fails to mention the fact the Helms’ views towards those suffering from HIV/AIDS in the U.S. never wavered.  “I don’t have any ideas on changing my views on that kind of activity (homosexuality), which is the primary cause of the doubling and redoubling of AIDS cases in the United States,” said Helms, explaining in 2002 why he had changed his mind about AIDS funding for Africa, but not for Americans. Helms’ misconception was that all Americans with HIV/AIDS are gay.  

When Jesse Helms died earlier this month Bono, lead singer for U2 and a longtime Africa Aids activist, reportedly called and left a voicemail for John Dodd, director of the Jesse Helms Center in Wingate. “There are 2 million people alive in Africa today because Jesse Helms did the right thing,” Bono allegedly said.  

But what about the hundreds of thousands of Americans that might still be alive had Helms ‘done the right thing’? Whatever good the Senator achieved through his AIDS relief efforts in the couple of years before his death could never counterbalance the pain and suffering wrought by his decade long campaign of opposition to AIDS research and prevention.  Helms believed that HIV/AIDS was collective suicide committed by homosexuals and, as far as he was concerned, that was a good thing.

David Bryden, a spokesperson for the Global AIDS Alliance, believes Senator Dole’s attempt to honor Helms was misguided.  “It’s 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 stated.  Jesse Helms fought numerous programs that HIV/AIDS activist say are proven ways to curb the spread of the disease.   

Jesse Helms hatred for gays is well documented.  In January of 1999 he introduced an anti-gay bill that was devised to block any attempt by President Clinton to issue an Executive Order to include gays as a special class protected under various titles of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  

But gays weren’t the only segment of society Helms held in disdain and tried to marginalize. “I’m a conservative progressive, and that means I think all men are equal, be they slants, beaners or niggers,” Helms said in a 1985 interview with the North Carolina Progressive, in response to an inquiry about whether or not he should be likened to a caveman. 

There’s no doubt that people in Africa suffering from these diseases could care less about what names are attached to this bill.  But we should care! What’s in a name?  My apologies to William Shakespeare but that which we call shit by any other name would still smell awful.  Jesse Helms was a divisive force who spent most of his career driving wedges of hate, racism and bigotry between Americans for political gain.  Jesse Helms doesn’t deserve to have a portable toilet named for him, much less legislation that is suppose to be for the betterment of humanity.   

I’ve always thought of Elizabeth Dole as a relatively intelligent woman worthy of respect, but her efforts in renaming the HIV/AIDS relief bill are more than ironic. They are tremendously offensive.   She is up for reelection this November so perhaps she thought her efforts would engender support of North Carolina voters? But are there really that many homophobic racist living in the Tar Heel State? 

Senator Dole’s bone-headed attempt to add the name Jesse Helms to the “Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008” failed.  But lest ye think that that the amendment’s failure was because more level headed politicians prevailed, consider this. Senate Amendment SA 5074 wasn’t even considered because Dole introduced it too late-after a procedural move had determined which changes could be considered.   

David L. Wylie is the Senior Editor of GaySOFLA Magazine.  Wylie is passionate about creating an online media outlet that will encourage, entertain and educate the south Florida LGBT Community.  Wylie hopes that GaySOFLA serves that purpose.  He can be reached at David@gaysofla.com