t&p and the AIDS Crisis

Image

  By Larry Liebert
Chronicle K'oshingcon Bureau Chief

SURCd6BN CEBrlERAL'S
ADVICE ON AIDS

Washington

  c'. Everett Koop looks every
bit the hard-line moralist, with
his stern goatee and the mili-
tarv uniform that comes with
his:job as surgeon general of the
United States.

  \Vhen the pediatric surgeon
from Philadelphia was chosen by
President Reagan in 1981, his record
of public campaigning to ban abor-
tions and his allegiance to tradition-
al "family values" made him a fa-
\-orite of Moral ,Majority-style con-
servatives.

  Thr 70-year-old Koop says his
views have not changed, but the
AIDS crisis -and his pragmatic, far
from moralistic reaction to it -
have turned his image topsy-turvy.

  Many of his old conservative
friends want Koop's scalp for urg-
ing AlDS education in the schools
and condom advertising on televi-
sion. Gays and liberals consider him
a I;ational hero for opposing manda-
tor\' AIDS tests and speaking out
z,e&t discrimination toward AIDS
i,arriers.

  Obviously enjoying the ditficul-
ty people are having in pigeonhol-
ing his brand of public health, Koop
reccnt!y to!d an interviewer, "I take
that as sort of a compliment, I
g,lE3."

  Koop's unique role will be ilius-
trated dramatically tomorrow
when he addresses a joint session of
the California Legislature in Sacra-
mcnto.

  Ilis speech !$ili be nonpartisan,
but his hosts will he the Legisla-
ture's liberal Democratic leaders.
They are unabashedly hoping to
rapitalire on Koop's prestige in
their effort to prt'ssure Republican
(iovernor Deukmejian. They \\ant
:IIP governor to spend more than
the $21.4 million he has proposed
i,~r the gear ahead to fight AIDS and
1:) sign legislation he had vetoed
that uould ban discrimination
nsainst AIDS victim?.

Surgeon General C. Everett KOOP

II AIDS education as early as
elementary school "so thot
children can grow up knowing
the behavior to avoid to protect
themselves."

O An end to the networks'
self-imposed bon on condom
ods because "the threat of AIDS
is so great, it overwhelms other
considerations."

S No mandatory testing for
exposure to the AIDS virus and
no quarantines "becaus9 AIDS
is not spread by casual contact."
I No tattoos of those who are
infected, as some conservatives
have suggested. "AIDS should
not be used as an excuse to
discriminate against any group
or individual."

neuvermg.

"The public health issue? be-
come more important to him than
anything else," said one of Koop's
top advisers. "He's not interested in
t,he local politics. He is a man with a
mission."

  Jim Brown. Koop's aide, said
Koop's seemingly liberal stand on
AlDS, embodied in a report he is-
sued last October. stems simply
from his strong sense of duty.

said. "He has a lot of old-fashioned
values - abstinence until you're
married and a faithful, `monoga-
mous relationship. But there are
people who will not listen (to such
advice), and he thinks you have to
tell them how to protect themselves
from catching AIDS. He has to take
into consideration that people could
die if they didn't know what to do."

  It is that attitude that has earn-
ed Koop his surprising new COlleC-
t ion of friends - and enemies.

  "He's been incredibly good,
and we really didn't expect it at all,"
said Urvashi Vaid of the National
Cay and Lesbian Task Force. "He
came out of what we thought was a
right-wing, Christian background.
Once he started meeting with peo-
ple and preparing his report, he
came to his own conclusions. It's
made a tremendous difference."

  By contrast, Robert Grant,
chairman of the evangelistic Chris-
tian Voice group, described Koop as
a good man getting some bad ad-
vice.

  "Dr. Koop is taking an Alice-in-
Wonderland approach to coping
with the worst epidemic in world
history," said Grant. "It calls for
drastic measures, not for putting a
Band-Aid on cancer, which is what
condoms aie to, AIDS. He should
recommend abstinence. The sekual
revolution is over. It's come to a
screeching halt. People must be-
come adults and get their drives
under control."

  Koop said recently that no one
in the Reagan administration has
drmanded that he curb his com-
ments. although he has lately begun
to stress family values as the most
important part of sex education in
schools.

  Koop has not backed off from
his fundamental message.

  "If you regard homosexual be-
havior as a sin," he recently told a
convention of religious broadcast-
ers. "please remember that one of
your fundamental teachings has
been to `separate the sin from the
sinner.' "