on AIDS." On October 9, DeVos said that the president needed to avoid naming commissioners who were "emotionally" involved in the commission's work and that, in one newspaper's account of his statement, "some homosexuals want to 'capture the agenda'". Years later, Watkins' wife reported that Watkins told Reagan "I'm a sailor and a submariner, and I know nothing about medicine", and that Reagan replied: "You're exactly who we're looking for." On October 11, Watkins announced plans to move quickly with reorganizing the commission staff. Noting that he was speaking to reporters on the day of a political march and rally in Washington, he said, "We have in Washington today one of the largest gay rights activist demonstrations that we have had—we are sensitive to them as human beings and to their issues". He continued: "We haven't done the job to date, I am sorry to say, but I feel comfortable and the other members of the commission feel comfortable that I can take it and mold them together and bring all of our prima donnas, including me, into a nice, neat, unified package." He named a new executive director on October 13. Without Bauer's approval, Watkins later added two commission members who had track records as critics of the Reagan administration: Kristine Gebbie, Oregon public health commissioner and president of the AIDS Task Force of the American Society of State and Territorial Health Officers and Dr. Benny J. Primm, director of a New York City treatment program for addicts. Primm was the only African American on the commission and the only one with expertise on the intravenous drug use. Of the challenge of heading the commission, Watkins later said: "I really wasn't sure I could pull it out of the swamp." Reports In February 1988, the commission released an interim report focused on IV drugs that called for a $20-billion, 10-year effort to fight AIDS. Watkins described it as "only seven-tenths of a percent of the defense budget." William B. Rubenstein, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) who earlier sued the commission anticipating that its membership would bias its findings, found Watkins' work "a pleasant surprise". On June 2, 1988, Watkins described the commission's draft report and called for state and federal laws to provide anti-discrimination protection for AIDS patients. He called that discrimination "the rule, not the exception." He explained that testing and the identification of