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_BILL CLINTON'S HIV/AIDS RECORD OF SHAME!

Former US President Bill Clinton is scheduled to deliver closing remarks
at the Barcelona Conference on HIV/AIDS. Here is a summary of Bill Clinton's
dismal record on HIV/AIDS. He hasn't earned the right to address an
International AIDS Conference. We remember...

BILL CLINTON'S HIV/AIDS RECORD OF SHAME!
"We cannot forgive, and must never forget"
.

• Clinton signed into law the HIV Immigration Ban and Travel Restrictions in 1993, authorizing the deportation of HIV-infected non US citizens, and imposing a ten-day limit on US travel for HIV+ foreign nationals - which is why these conferences are no longer held in the US. (Nickles amendment to the NIH Reauthorization Bill).
  
  
• Clinton fired his Surgeon General, Dr. Joycelyn Elders, who suggested that masturbation be discussed as a safe sex alternative, in response to a question at a World AIDS Day event held the United Nations. The dismissal of Dr. Elders, known as the 'Condom Queen,' resulted in a chilling effect on US HIV prevention efforts, ending prospects of wide spread distribution of latex condoms and water-based lubricants targeting populations who remain at-risk.
  
  
• Clinton betrayed his promise for an AIDS 'Manhattan Project,' made as a candidate in 1992, to launch an all-out, coordinated research effort for an AIDS cure. Once elected to the White House, Clinton abandoned that promise, and the hopes of millions around the world who are still waiting and dying for a cure for AIDS.
  
  
• Clinton failed to deliver an 'AIDS Czar,' despite his campaign commitment to create a powerful position, like the 'Drug Czar,' to lead the US efforts against the deadly AIDS pandemic. Instead, Clinton appointed a series of low-level, powerless 'policy coordinators', all of whom lacked sufficient power and authority achieve significant progress in the world-wide effort to end AIDS.
  
  
• Clinton sold out to the Insurance Industry, leaving the United States still to be the ONLY INDUSTRIALISED COUNTRY IN THE WORLD WITHOUT NATIONAL HEALTHCARE! 50 MILLION CITIZENS IN THE USA WITHOUT HEALTHCARE!!
  
  
• Clinton refused to lift the federal funding ban for clean needle exchange programs, despite overwhelming evidence that these programs are highly effective in reducing HIV transmission among injection drug users and their partners. As a result, countless men, women and children have become needlessly infected with HIV, condemned to a lingering and horrific death.
  
  
• Clinton neglected the global fight against AIDS, and failed to direct adequate resources, allocating a paltry $100 million for Africa's AIDS orphans. Since leaving the White House, however, Clinton has suggested the US spend $2.5 billion to fight AIDS internationally - something the Clinton Administration never did in eight budgets submitted to Congress, despite huge surpluses.
  
  

When Bill Clinton speaks at the Barcelona Conference closing session, please turn your back, just as Bill Clinton turned his back on all people living with, and dying from HIV and AIDS, during his crucial two terms as President of the United States.

Send a message to U.S. President George W. Bush and other world leaders, and the pharmaceutical industry, that history will recall their own record, failures, and betrayals on the AIDS pandemic.

ACT UP

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