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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Greg or e who wrote (10857)	4/9/2001 4:51:12 PM
From: 2MAR$	Respond to of 82486

Bush names GOP gay leader to head AIDS office By Randall Mikkelsen WASHINGTON, April 9 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Monday named a gay man to head the White House AIDS office, which is being revamped to increase efforts at fighting the disease overseas. The White House said Bush named Scott Evertz, Wisconsin president of the gay and lesbian organization Log Cabin Republicans, to head the White House office of national AIDS policy. There had been speculation earlier, quickly denied by the White House, that Bush would scrap the office which former President Bill Clinton created in 1994. Evertz, a vice president of the Luther Manor Foundation in Milwaukee, is the highest-ranking openly gay person appointed by a Republican president, the Log Cabin Republicans national organization said. Evertz will have a seat on the president's domestic policy council, and his job arguably makes him the highest-ranking openly gay person to serve in a direct policy position in any White House, Log Cabin Republican spokesman Kevin Ivers said. Clinton appointed several gays and lesbians to senior positions in the White House and administration. "It's symbolic, and it speaks well for the administration," Ivers said of the Evertz appointment. Evertz has a background in domestic and international AIDS issues, close ties with Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, and a passion for his work, Ivers said. "He's a home run," he said. FIGHTING AIDS AROUND THE WORLD The office will include staff members contributed by the State Department and the Department of Health and Human Services, reflecting an increased emphasis on containing the global spread of AIDS and infections of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus which causes it. Bush also named Secretary of State Colin Powell and Thompson to head a high level task force to fight AIDS. "Because HIV and AIDS is such a growing global crisis and because of the particular emphasis that President Bush wants to put on fighting AIDS and finding ways to reduce AIDS, if not cure AIDS around the world, the AIDS policy office will have an increased focus on international components of the disease," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. Evertz has also served as a volunteer in Milwaukee for Common Ground, an ecumenical, faith-based organization that runs a housing program for people with HIV/AIDS. He participated in a meeting between Bush and Log Cabin Republicans a year ago during the presidential campaign, and helped the Log Cabin Republicans win Republican platform language supporting funding for AIDS treatment and calling the global AIDS epidemic a priority, Ivers said. In the United States, gay men account for the largest proportion of the 40,000 new HIV infections annually, followed by men and women infected through heterosexual sex and injected drug users, according to government figures. Globally, HIV infects more than 5 million people annually. The Human Rights Campaign, the largest U.S. gay and lesbian organization, welcomed Evertz's appointment but criticized Bush for failing to raise federal spending on AIDS treatment and care in his fiscal 2002 budget request Monday. "It is our sincere hope that this (appointment) signals the new administration's commitment to providing active leadership in the national and international fight against HIV and AIDS," the organization's political director, Winnie Stachelberg, said in a release. Bush faced strong criticism from AIDS activists and gay rights groups in February after his chief of staff, Andrew Card, said key White House offices on AIDS and race relations would be shut down. ((Washington newsroom +1 202 898 8300, fax +1 202 898 8383, washington.bureau.newsroom@reuters.com)) REUTERS * end of story *