White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer issued a statement Friday naming Joseph O'Neill as the new director of the Office of National AIDS Policy, replacing an openly gay director whose activism rankled some conservatives. O'Neill, an openly gay physician, is the acting head of the Office of AIDS and HIV policy in the Department of Health and Human Services.

Outgoing director Scott Evertz was shifted to the Department of Health and Human Services. There he will serve as special assistant to Secretary Tommy Thompson "to assist in further developing and implementing the department's overall strategy to fight HIV/AIDS around the world, including the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria," according to an HHS press statement.

"I am thrilled to be able to help the administration address the global pandemic in this new capacity," Evertz said in the statement, seeming to put to rest speculation by activists at the Human Rights Campaign that he was forced out by conservatives who did not like his association with gay groups and his support of condom use for preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS.

"We are pleased with the job Scott Evertz has been doing in our effort to combat HIV/AIDS and we look forward to working with him in his new high-level position at HHS," said White House spokesperson Scott McClellan.

HRC's political director Winnie Stachelberg said her group is "cautiously hoping that these [personnel] moves will reinvigorate the Bush administration's efforts to create a comprehensive HIV and AIDS strategy to battle the disease at home and abroad."

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