Jesse Helms, R.I.P.

Sometimes a person is just so far outside the parameters of acceptable behavior, one cannot seriously think that the world is not better off without them. Sometimes a person has caused so much pain that the only possible response is humor. Although he backpedaled later in his life, Helms probably did more than anyone in American politics to cause the AIDS pandemic, just because of his erroneous belief that it was a “gay disease,” and that gay people deserved to die. He never repented of his outrageous racial and sexual bigotry. I honor his passing to the next stage of his being with this trailer made for the occasion of the 1999 Frameline Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. Hat tip to Eric Eldritch.