Editing Jesse Helms (section)

===HIV legislation===
{{Main|Helms AIDS Amendments}}
In 1987, Helms added an amendment to the Supplemental Appropriations Act, which directed the president to use executive authority to add HIV infection to the list of excludable diseases that prevent both travel and immigration to the United States.<ref name=AIDS-law>{{cite book |title= AIDS and the Law: A Basic Guide for the Nonlawyer |last= Teri |first= Allan H. |year= 1992 |publisher= Taylor & Francis |isbn= 1-56032-218-7 |page= [https://archive.org/details/aidslawbasicguid0000terl/page/78 78] |url= https://archive.org/details/aidslawbasicguid0000terl/page/78 }}</ref> The action was opposed by the U.S. Public Health Service. Congress restored the executive authority to remove HIV from the list of excludable conditions in the 1990 Immigration Reform Act, and in January 1991, Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan announced he would delete HIV from the list of excludable conditions. A letter-writing campaign headed by Helms ultimately convinced President Bush not to lift the ban, and left the United States the only industrialized nation in the world to prohibit travel based on HIV status.<ref name=Looking>{{cite book |title= Looking at Gay and Lesbian Life |last= Blumenfeld |first= Warren J.|author2=Diane Christine Raymond |year= 1993 |publisher= Beacon Press |isbn= 0-8070-7923-5 |pages= 335–6}}</ref> The travel ban was also responsible for the cancellation of the 1992 International AIDS Conference in Boston.<ref name=AIDS-law /> On January 5, 2010, the 22-year-old ban was lifted after having been signed by President [[Barack Obama]] on October 30, 2009.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/01/04/us.hiv.visa/index.html|publisher=[[CNN]]| title=U.S. lifts restriction on visas to HIV-positive foreigners|access-date=May 6, 2010|date=January 5, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/10/30/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5462425.shtml|work=[[CBS News]]|title=Obama Lifts Travel Ban for HIV-Positive|first=Brian|last=Montopoli|date=October 30, 2009|archive-date=January 22, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160122061606/https://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/10/30/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5462425.shtml}}</ref>

Helms was "bitterly opposed" to federal financing for research and treatment of AIDS,<ref name=NYTObit>{{cite news |work=The New York Times |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/05/us/politics/00helms.html?hp |title= Jesse Helms Dies at 86; Conservative Force in the Senate |date=July 5, 2000 |first=Steven A. |last=Holmes}}</ref> which he believed was God's punishment for homosexuals.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Noden|first=Rondi|date=2007|title=Is AIDS God's Judgment Against Homosexuality?: An Argument from Natural Law|work=Cedarville University Center for Bioethics|url=https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=cedar_ethics_online|access-date=October 15, 2021}}</ref> He introduced an [[Helms AIDS Amendments|amendment to a 1987 spending bill]] that prohibited the use of federal tax dollars for any  [[HIV/AIDS|AIDS]] educational materials that would "promote or encourage, directly or indirectly, homosexual activities".<ref name="Temple">{{cite book |last1=Rimmerman |first1=Craig A. |title=From Identity to Politics: The Lesbian and Gay Movements in the United States |date=2002 |publisher=Temple University Press |isbn=978-1-56639-905-0 |page=94 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y0BexugIsxsC&pg=PA94 |access-date=September 10, 2021 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Helms |first1=Jesse |title=S.Amdt.963 to H.R.3058 – 100th Congress (1987–1988) |url=https://www.congress.gov/amendment/100th-congress/senate-amendment/963 |website=www.congress.gov |access-date=September 10, 2021 |date=October 14, 1987}}</ref>

Opposing the [[Ted Kennedy|Kennedy]]-[[Orrin Hatch|Hatch]] AIDS bill in 1988, Helms incorrectly stated, "There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to [[sodomy]]".<ref>Quoting the [[States News Service]] (May 17, 1988) in {{cite news|title=Former Sen. Jesse Helms dies at 86|first=JOHANNA |last=NEUMAN|date=
July 5, 2008|work=Los Angeles Times|url=https://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-helms5-2008jul05-story.html}}</ref> When [[Ryan White]], who contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion he received at age 13, died in 1990, his mother went to Congress to speak to politicians on behalf of people with AIDS. She spoke to 23 representatives; Helms refused to speak to Jeanne White, even when she was alone with him in an elevator.<ref>{{cite news |work=POZ |url= http://www.poz.com/articles/236_12435.shtml |title= Life After Ryan |date=January 1997 |first= Phil Geoffrey |last= Bond}}</ref> Despite opposition by Helms, the [[Ryan White Care Act]] passed in 1990.

In 1988, Helms convinced congress to implement a ban on federal funding for [[needle exchange program]]s, arguing that spending federal money on such programs was tantamount to "federal endorsement of drug abuse".<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/us/surge-in-cases-of-hiv-tests-us-policy-on-needle-exchanges.html | title=Surge in Cases of H.I.V. Tests U.S. Policy on Needle Exchanges | work=The New York Times | date=May 16, 2015 | access-date=November 26, 2015 | author=Hulse, Carl}}</ref>

As late as 2002, Helms continued to claim that the "homosexual lifestyle" was the cause of the spread of AIDS in the United States, and he remained opposed to spending money on AIDS research.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Clymer |first1=Adam |title=Helms Reverses Opposition to Help on AIDS |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/26/us/helms-reverses-opposition-to-help-on-aids.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=6 June 2022 |date=26 March 2002}}</ref>