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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that uncovers a little bit more about history every day.

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Speaker 1: I'm Gay Bluesiay, And today we're looking at a one

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Speaker 1: of a kind protest from the early nineteen nineties, the

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Speaker 1: day when a huge fabric condom rose above the house

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Speaker 1: of a sitting senator. The day was September fifth, nineteen

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Speaker 1: ninety one. A group of protesters draped a giant, inflatable

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Speaker 1: condom over the home of North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms.

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Speaker 1: The goal of the unusual demonstration was to protest Republican lawmakers,

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Speaker 1: Helms in particular, who were vehemently opposed to gay rights

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Speaker 1: and to funding AIDS research and treatments. To help get

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Speaker 1: their point across, the group's sdenseled a message in big

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Speaker 1: block letters on the front of the fabric condom. It read, quote,

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Speaker 1: a condom to stop unsafe politics. Helms is deadlier than

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Speaker 1: a virus. During his thirty year career in the Senate,

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Speaker 1: Jesse Helms was known for his hard edged conservatism and

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Speaker 1: his dogged efforts to block any legislation he opposed. This

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Speaker 1: earned him the nickname Senator No, and Helms took great

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Speaker 1: pride in living up to it. As North Carolina's Senator,

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Speaker 1: he said no to all sorts of things, including civil rights,

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Speaker 1: foreign aid, affirmative action, tax increases, a woman's right to choose,

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Speaker 1: and even modern art. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Helms was most provocative

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Speaker 1: on subjects of race and homosexuality. In nineteen eighty three,

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Speaker 1: he was the only Senator to vote against making Martin

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Speaker 1: Luther King Junior's birthday a national holiday, and he even

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Speaker 1: led a sixteen day a filibuster to try to stop

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Speaker 1: the measure from passing. Less than a decade later, Helms

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Speaker 1: fought just as strongly to block federal spending on HIV research, treatment,

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Speaker 1: and prevention. He called the LGBT community quote perverted human

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Speaker 1: beings and insisted that they were to blame for the

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Speaker 1: AIDS crisis due to their quote deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty eight, Helms turned his fiery rhetoric into

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Speaker 1: legislation by introducing an amendment that would prohibit the use

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Speaker 1: of any federal funds to quote promote, encourage, or condone

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Speaker 1: homosexual activities. It passed with only two objections in the

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Speaker 1: Senate and just forty seven no votes in the House.

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Speaker 1: It's hard to gauge the true impact of the so

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Speaker 1: called Helm's Amendment, but it's reasonable to think that some

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Speaker 1: people may not have gotten sick or died if they

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Speaker 1: had been able to learn about safe section practices from

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Speaker 1: the government's HIV prevention campaign. Thousands of Americans wrote protest

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Speaker 1: letters condemning the Helm's Amendment and the government's general disregard

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Speaker 1: for the HIV AIDS crisis. Then, in the summer of

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one, AIDS activist Peter Staley decided to take

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Speaker 1: the fight to Helm's own doorstep. The group he had

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Speaker 1: co founded, act UP, was about to launch a new

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Speaker 1: AIDS organization that would focus solely on spurring the development

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Speaker 1: and approval of anti HIV medications. This new affiliate was

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Speaker 1: called the Treatment Action Group, or TAG, and Staley wanted

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Speaker 1: to announce its arrival by staging an eye catching act

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Speaker 1: of civil disobedience. As one of the most vocal opponents

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Speaker 1: of their cause, Senator Helms was an obvious target, and

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Speaker 1: it didn't take Staley long to hit on the idea

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Speaker 1: of covering his house in a condom as the activists

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Speaker 1: later recalled a supposed public servant had contributed to the

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Speaker 1: death of my friends and was standing in the way

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Speaker 1: of fighting the disease. Someone needed to confront him to

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Speaker 1: make him uncomfortable. My goal was to criticize him and

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Speaker 1: get people to laugh at him at the same time.

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Speaker 1: So I dreamed big, a big condom, that is. Staley

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Speaker 1: put together a team, which he called the tag Helm seven,

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Speaker 1: and with the help of a gay friend who worked

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Speaker 1: in the Senate, they were able to find out the

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Speaker 1: senator's home address. It was a two story brick colonial

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Speaker 1: home in the Washington suburb of Arlington, Virginia. The team

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Speaker 1: took a reconnaissance trip to see it in person so

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Speaker 1: that they could better estimate how large a condom they

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Speaker 1: would need to cover it. Once they had worked out

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Speaker 1: the dimensions, Staley reached out to several novelty companies, the

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Speaker 1: kind that make those big inflatable animals that you might

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Speaker 1: find outside a car dealership. Estimates for the custom condom

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Speaker 1: ranged from third twenty five hundred dollars to fifteen thousand dollars,

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Speaker 1: all of which was well beyond the price range of

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Speaker 1: the newly minted group. In the end, It was legendary

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Speaker 1: record executive and film producer David Geffen who footed the

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Speaker 1: bill for the condom. Staley's boyfriend at the time was

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Speaker 1: good friends with Geffen, and after sharing their plans with him,

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Speaker 1: Geffen handed them a thick wad of cash and warned

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Speaker 1: them to be careful. Shortly after, the team placed in

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Speaker 1: order for a thirty five hundred dollars inflatable condom to

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Speaker 1: be made from the same material as a parachute. Once

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Speaker 1: it arrived from California, they took it to an act

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Speaker 1: up member's country home in upstate New York so that

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Speaker 1: they could practice unfurling it and blowing it up. Then

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Speaker 1: they stencil painted their biting message onto the front and

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Speaker 1: headed to northern Virginia. The protesters scheduled their demonstration for

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Speaker 1: September fifth, nineteen ninety one, during the Senate's summer recess.

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Speaker 1: They purposely chose a date when Senator Helms was out

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Speaker 1: of town, and they even knocked on his door the

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Speaker 1: night beforehand to confirm that no one was home. The

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Speaker 1: tag team also told CNN and all the local TV

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Speaker 1: stations that they were planning to cover a US senator's

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Speaker 1: home with a condom. They wouldn't say who the target was, though.

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Speaker 1: Instead they had the press meet them at their Virginia

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Speaker 1: motel and then followed their rented U haul truck to

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Speaker 1: the mystery senator's home. Once they arrived, everyone sprang into action.

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Speaker 1: A few of the team members scrambled up a twenty

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Speaker 1: eight foot extension ladder and began unpacking the condom from

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Speaker 1: a duffel bag. They laid out the enormous prophylactic and

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Speaker 1: connected it to a large blower with a custom built

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Speaker 1: stand made just for Helm's roof. Other team members pinned

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Speaker 1: the bottom of the condom to the grass below using

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Speaker 1: plastic stakes and rubber mallets. Then they plugged the long

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Speaker 1: extension cord into a portable generator and cheered with the

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Speaker 1: light as the giant condom rose into the air. It

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Speaker 1: covered the entire roof and the front of the house,

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Speaker 1: standing nearly thirty five feet tall at full length. The

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Speaker 1: first police car arrived just a few minutes after the

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Speaker 1: condom was fully inflated. The participants expected to be arrested

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Speaker 1: on the spot, but much to their surprise, they were

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Speaker 1: eventually allowed to go free. The police said it was

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Speaker 1: up to the Senator whether or not to press charges,

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Speaker 1: and Helms ultimately declined to do so, hoping to keep

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Speaker 1: the incident from becoming an even bigger news story than

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Speaker 1: it was already guaranteed to be. At the police's request,

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Speaker 1: the protesters took down the inflatable condom and packed it away,

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Speaker 1: leaving Helms's home just the way they had found it.

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Speaker 1: The group was even allowed to keep the condom, which

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Speaker 1: they later donated to the one National Gay and Lesbian

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Speaker 1: Archives in Los Angeles. In the end, the tag Helm

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Speaker 1: seven walked away with nothing but a parking ticket, apparently

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Speaker 1: they had parked their truck on the wrong side of

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Speaker 1: the street. The only other thing the team had failed

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Speaker 1: to account for was the presence of Helm's housekeeper. It

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Speaker 1: was later discovered that she had spent a rather confusing

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Speaker 1: morning trapped inside the house, unable to get out until

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Speaker 1: the condom was removed. Later that evening, TV stations across

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Speaker 1: the country covered the incident, sharing the group's rebuke of

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Speaker 1: Senator Helms and demonstrating the playful side of political activism.

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Speaker 1: As for Helms, he responded about as you'd expect. He

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Speaker 1: complained about the stunt on the Senate floor and denounced

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Speaker 1: the perpetrators as quote radical homosexuals. Still, he never did

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Speaker 1: press charges, and more importantly, he never passed another harmful

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Speaker 1: aid's amendment. And while we can't say for certain that

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Speaker 1: the giant inflatable condom caused him to back down, well

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Speaker 1: it probably didn't hurt. I'm Gabe Blues Gay and hopefully

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Speaker 1: you now know a little more about history today than

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Speaker 1: you did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up with

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Speaker 1: the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and

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Speaker 1: Instagram at TDI HC Show, and if you have any

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Speaker 1: comments or suggestions, feel free to send them my way

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Speaker 1: by writing to this Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks

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Speaker 1: to Kasby Bias for producing the show, and thanks to

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Speaker 1: you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow

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Speaker 1: for another day in History class