The Nation - News from July 28, 1988

The Senate voted to partially relax strictures on federally financed educational material used in the fight against AIDS, despite charges by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) that the money will be used “to promote sodomy, to promote homosexuality.” The vote marked a shift in the position of the Senate, which twice in the last year has approved language sponsored by Helms that limited educational material to promoting abstinence and family-oriented values. The Senate voted 61 to 37 for an amendment, introduced by Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), that would permit health authorities and private groups to use federal money to develop educational materials designed “to reduce exposure to a transmission” of the AIDS virus.