Jesse Helms Quotes
There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy.
No one knows whether Helms actually believed such an absurd, counter-factual statement or it was part of his anti homosexual appeal to religious fundamentalists. Most AIDS cases in America were transmitted through heterosexual intercourse. And then there were many tragic cases where AIDS was contracted through contaminated pharmaceuticals, and the substantial number of cases transmitted via intravenous use of illicit drugs where needles are shared by the addicts. Transmission by homosexual sodomy is a very small proportion of the AIDS cases.
Jesse Helms, 1914-2008, U.S. Senator (Republican, NC), Opposing any Federal Funding for AIDS, 1988
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Those were not the facts at all. A substantial number of people who get AIDS, did so from unprotected sex—especially women. By promulgating false and dangerous health information like this, doubtless some people believed him and did not protect themselves to their everlasting regret.
The vast majority of the AIDS victims were then and are today heterosexual.
Botswana is one of the few African national successes at that time. It is the world’s largest diamond exporter and unlike many other nations, wealthy in natural resources like Saudi Arabia or Iran, Botswana became a multi-party democracy upon independence and has remained that ever since.
He tried to make homosexual acts criminal by enforcing an old Virginia law against sodomy, but was overruled unanimously by a 3 judge panel of the Virginia Appellate court, based on a clear Supreme Court precedent of Lawrence v. Texas, 2003. Most political analysis believe that Cuccinelli knew perfectly well that this would be unconstitutional but proposed it and went to court to pander to the ultra conservative base of his party.
Jesse Alexander Helms Jr. was an American journalist, media executive, and politician. A leader in the conservative movement, he served as a senator from North Carolina from 1973 to 2003. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1995 to 2001 he had a major voice in foreign policy. Helms helped organize and fund the conservative resurgence in the 1970s, focusing on Ronald Reagan's quest for the White House as well as helping many local and regional candidates.
