AIDS CZAR'S VIEWS STRETCH PARTY LINE

Scott Evertz, the first gay man chosen to head the White House Office of
National AIDS Policy, acknowledges he will have to walk a fine line between
his own convictions and those of the politicians he serves.

Evertz said he is troubled by President Bush's decision to freeze Ryan
White AIDS Care Act funds at last year's level of $1.8 billion.

He recognizes the effectiveness of needle exchange programs.

And he favors teaching teens about safer sex as well as abstinence. But he
stops short of insisting that the administration adopt his views as well:
"I'm going to avoid commenting on what I think the Bush administration
should do," he said.

Mike Gifford of the AIDS Resource Center in Wisconsin spent eight years
working with Evertz to secure AIDS funding for the state. "Scott is a man
of convictions who has great political savvy.

Those two characteristics will serve him in his new position," he said. To
some other AIDS leaders, Evertz is more of an enigma. "This is not a person
that any of us in the AIDS community has worked with before, but that
doesn't mean he won't do a great job," said Sandra Thurman, previous AIDS
czar and president of the International AIDS Trust. "I'm guardedly
optimistic," said Terje Anderson, director of the National Association of
People with AIDS. "I'm told he's smart and likable, a quick-learning guy."

Evertz' partner of seven years is Barry Avery, who is the father of an
18-year-old daughter.

Evertz, 38, said his own parents accepted his homosexuality, though neither
he nor they broached the subject.

Evertz is a Roman Catholic and former president of Wisconsin's Log Cabin
Republicans.