Former North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helmswho opposed gays and liberals during his three-decade run in the U.S. Congressdied on the Fourth of July, according to the Associated Press. He was 86.
As he became older, Helms was plagued by various physical ailments that affected his heart, prostate and bones.
The Jesse Helms Center at Wingate University in North Carolina initially reported his passing.
Helms' battles with the LGBT community were well-documented. When then-President Clinton wanted a lesbian for a post in the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1993, the Republican told a newspaper, 'I'm not going to put a lesbian in a position like that. If you want to call me a bigot, fine.'
Among other concepts and causes Helms rejected were funding for the arts; affirmative action; and a federal holiday honoring civil-rights activist the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr, CNN.com reported.
Helms also was against AIDS funding and research, saying, 'Nothing positive happened to Sodom and Gomorrah, and nothing positive is likely to happen to America if our people succumb to the drumbeats of support for the homosexual lifestyle,' the International Herald Tribune reported. However, the conservative did work with others in his later years to help combat AIDS in Africa, where heterosexual transmission of the virus predominates.
Helms retired from Congress in 2003.