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Republicans Deny that AIDS is a National Security Threat

President Clinton Criticized for Classifying HIV as Such

Trent Lott: 'He's Appealing to You Know, Certain Groups'

Compiled By GayToday

Washington, D.C.�Republican Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Mississippi), who, in 1998 likened homosexuality to alcoholism and kleptomania, is now criticizing President Clinton for having designated AIDS a threat to national security.

Lott told Fox News, television's premier radical right-wing propaganda channel:

Sen. Trent Lott

"I guess this is just the president trying to make an appeal to, you know, certain groups� I don't view that (AIDS) as a national security threat, not to our national security interests, no."

Sandy Thurman, director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy quickly replied to the President's Republican foes:

"We have to respond to this because we've never seen a crisis like HIV and AIDS globally�We're beginning to understand that this epidemic not only has health implications, but has implications as a fundamental development issue, an economic issue, and a stability and security issue."

The disease, argues the Clinton Administration, is spreading through the global community and threatens to bring down national governments, ignite ethnic wars and to destroy decades of work in which free-market democracies have been nurtured.

Thurman explained that a report from the National Intelligence Council had shown how the virus is "sweeping the globe," especially threatening Africa, India and independent nations that were once part of the former Soviet Union. She said:

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"With the logistical expertise that the national security community brings, with the diplomatic expertise that is necessary to sort of pave the road for leaders around the world to respond to this epidemic, this gives us a whole new ability to respond to AIDS like we would respond to any other international threat."