Thinkprogress.org (July 16, 2008)

Sen. Dole attempts to rename HIV/AIDS relief bill after Jesse Helms

The Huffington Post reports that Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) has introduced “an amendment to name an HIV/AIDS relief bill after the recently deceased Jesse Helms,” who was a “strident foe of HIV/AIDS prevention, research and treatment.”

Helms was notorious for his ignorant comments regarding HIV/AIDS. In 1987 he described “AIDS prevention literature as ‘so obscene, so revolting, I may throw up‘” and in 1995 Helms argued that “that the government should spend less on people with AIDS because they got sick due to their ‘deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct.’”