Right-Wing Activist Phyllis Schlafly was back on the warpath. Holding an open letter to Surgeon General C. Everett Koop at a Washington press conference last Friday, Schlafly denounced him for appearing to advocate the “teaching of safe sodomy in public schools.” She accused Koop, a conservative born- again Christian, of not sufficiently promoting chastity. Though the letter, signed by 54 other activists, was addressed to Koop, its message was aimed much further. According to Schlafly, “this is a political issue, and how politicians address it is very important.”
The AIDS epidemic is fast moving toward the top of the New Right’s agenda of pressing social issues. Fierce opposition to condom advertising and “safe sex” instruction in schools is only the first line of battle. The crusaders have also declared war on public health officials for not adopting stringent anti-AIDS measures such as mandatory testing and emergency quarantine. “AIDS is the No. 1 underground issue of our time,” says Paul Weyrich, president of the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation. “We have a sick public health community that has been frankly intimidated by the homosexual lobby.” Richard Viguerie, a New Right fund raiser, calls AIDS the “first politically protected disease in the history of mankind.”
“Initially most traditional-value types saw AIDS as a natural cause and . effect,” explains Bob Grant, chairman of the lobbying organization Christian Voice. “People with unsafe and immoral behavior were reaping its results.” The AIDS-related death of Terry Dolan, a founder of the National Conservative Political Action Committee, made it an awkward subject among some New Right activists. But in the wake of recent studies showing that AIDS is spreading to the heterosexual community, the right stopped averting its eyes.
Many leaders of the New Right, however, are determined to make AIDS an issue that could eclipse abortion as a conservative litmus test for campaigners. “There is a current moving out there that politicians will have to respond to,” says Weyrich. Warns Jeffrey Bell, an adviser to Congressman Jack Kemp: “Anyone advocating the American Civil Liberties Union line on AIDS will not be acceptable in the Republican nomination fight.”