Washington Blade - July 27, 2001
Lou Chibbaro Jr.
Evertz, speaking at a July 19 meeting of the AIDS advisory council in Washington, D.C., said Thompson had taken steps to renew the panel's charter and planned to keep panel members in place until their terms expire, at which time he would name replacements. Among the members of the council who will remain in office is former U.S. Rep. Ronald Dellums (D-Calif.), whom Clinton named as the panel's chairperson.
The status of the AIDS advisory panel, which includes nearly a dozen openly gay members, has been in question since President Bush took office in January. In April, Bush named Evertz as the first openly gay head of the White House AIDS office but declined to say what he planned to do about the AIDS advisory panel. At the time he appointed Evertz, Bush created a new White House AIDS task force of government officials to work on both national and international AIDS issues.
The president named Thompson and Secretary of State Colin Powell to serve as co-chairs of the task force.
Thompson was scheduled to appear at the AIDS advisory council meeting July 19 but sent word that he could not attend due to a scheduling conflict. An HHS source familiar with Thompson's deliberations on the status of the council said Thompson met with Dellums and council panel members on May 7 to discuss the future of the advisory body. The source said Thompson recommended to the White House a short time later that the council be retained. According to the source, Thompson and his staff were taking steps to put together the needed paperwork to renew the council's charter.
"I was very pleased with the passion and dedication of everyone involved," Thompson told the Associated Press. "We are really stepping forward with our continued commitment in this national and international fight against the AIDS pandemic," AP quoted him as saying. "This decision will allow us to be able to best continue that."
Carl Schmid, a gay Republican activist who worked on the Bush-for-president campaign last year, called the decision to renew the charter of the presidential AIDS advisory panel another indication that the Bush administration is strongly committed to addressing the AIDS epidemic.
In its meeting, the advisory panel released a series of recommendations reiterating its past call for a stepped-up government effort to develop an AIDS vaccine and more effective drugs to treat people with HIV. Similar to its past pronouncements, the panel called on President Bush and Secretary Thompson to declare that an "AIDS-related emergency exits in communities of color in the U.S. and that appropriate and responsible steps be taken to respond to this state of emergency."
Although Clinton created the AIDS advisory panel and named it a "presidential" body, he delegated full authority for overseeing the panel and appointing its members to the secretary of HHS.
Among the current members of the panel are Terje Anderson, executive director of the National Association of People With AIDS; Bob Hattoy, the openly gay former White House adviser to Clinton; Ronald Johnson of the Gay Men's Health Crisis in New York City; and Debra Fraser-Howze, president and chief executive officer of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS.
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