WASHINGTON (AP) – President Bush has officially named his acting AIDS adviser, Carol J. Thompson, as head of the Office of National AIDS Policy.

Bush’s first two AIDS advisers, Scott Evertz and Joseph O’Neill, were both male doctors who were openly gay. Thompson is not a physician and is heterosexual.

The appointments of Evertz and O’Neill to the job was applauded by gay groups and AIDS activists. Evertz was the first openly gay person nominated to an executive branch office by a Republican president, but his association with gay groups and his support of condom use rankled some conservatives.

Thompson has held the post on an interim basis since August. Before that, she was a White House domestic policy adviser and worked at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

She replaced Joseph O’Neill, whom Bush had named deputy coordinator of a new office that coordinates response to the global AIDS pandemic.

Colleagues said Thompson is passionate about the AIDS issue and helped to enact and implement Bush’s five-year, $15 billion plan aimed at stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS worldwide.

“Carol is a great choice for AIDS director,” said Jay Lefkowitz, who worked with Thompson on the issue when both were in the White House domestic policy shop.

But the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights advocacy group, said her appointment was meaningless because the Bush administration has not spent enough money on fighting AIDS at home or abroad

“The White House has made this position so irrelevant, we’re not overly concerned about Carol Thompson,” said Cheryl Jacques, the group’s president.

“A whole generation know nothing about this disease and is being told nothing by their government about prevention,” Jacques said. “They need the unvarnished truth.”