I agree with Walt– we cannot allow his death to whitewash (very appropriate term) the legacy of his words and actions. How can we ignore a man who used hate to further his personal agenda and whose actions are directly responsible for the unnecessary deaths of thousands? One historical note — the language of the Helms Amendment that Walt quotes about federal funds not promoting “sexual activity, homosexual or heterosexual” actually represented a compromise that was widely accepted at the time. Originally Helms was pushing for an amendment that would have solely targeted drug use and gay sex (known to folks working on the issue at the time as “No Promo Homo”) and he probably had the votes to make it happen. After extensive negotiations with Kennedy and other allies of the AIDS community, it was altered to include “homosexual or heterosexual”. The idea at the time was that it would allow federal funds to be used to talk honestly about gay and straight sex as long as they weren’t “promoting” or “encouraging” it. (Of course if you make safer sex sound like it could be fun, you could probably be accused of promoting and encouraging. So as long as you make it sound awful, you can talk about it with federal funds). Rather than allow the funding to die or the original Helms language to be accepted, the language was accepted by most AIDS advocates at the time– that explains the overwhelming votes in favor by both parties. I won’t speculate retroactively whether that compromise was the proper course at the time. (As for deleting it now, I am not sure if it remains in effect -- it was originally attached to appropriations bills for HHS (CDC & HRSA). I think (although I’m not sure) that it eventually stopped being added to funding bills — and I don’t remember if it was ever incorporated into a permanent law instead of just annual appropriations. But the spirit of the Helms Amendment continues to haunt federal HIV prevention programmes. ) But there is no question that, whatever people thought the “compromise” meant at the time, it has had a chilling effect on HIV prevention ever since — leaving many public health officials cowering and afraid to spend money on effective prevention programmes, and leading directly to later atrocities such as content review panels, abstinence only education, Souder/Coburn/Roland Foster’s harassment of Stop AIDS and other prevention providers, retreat from behavioural interventions in favour of biomedical ones, the abstinence requirement and restrictions on family planning and prostitution work in PEPFAR, and the continued growth of new infections. How do we observe the death of a mass murderer like Helms? Certainly not by quietly sitting by while he is remembered as a “great American and public servant,” “a kindly southern gentleman of a different era,” “an eccentric advocate for his beliefs,” or other platitudes that we will hear over the coming days. The man hated people of colour, GLBT people, women, and anyone else who didn’t fit his narrow supremacist ideology. As he is remembered, we have an obligation to make sure the voices of those he killed or harmed are clearly heard.